Chinese Auto Market in October 2023 grows 9.7% after falling for 4 consecutive months, with new registrations at 2.08 million. YTD figures at 17.80 million are down 2.3% from the previous year. BYD becomes the new segment leader (+52.6%).
Market Trend and Outlook
The Chinese economy is on track to meet the government’s 2023 growth target, reflecting a strong post-COVID recovery. Real GDP is projected to grow by 5.4 percent in 2023 and slow to 4.6 percent in 2024 amid continued weakness in the property sector and subdued external demand.
China’s credit-fueled growth in recent years was accompanied by widening imbalances and rising vulnerabilities. Excessively high household savings were used to finance infrastructure and residential investment with diminishing returns, resulting in elevated debt levels.
The Chinese auto market has shown signs of slower growth in 2023, with YTD figures at 17.80 million down 2.3% from the previous year. In October 2023 sales grew 9.7% after falling for 4 consecutive months, reporting 2.08 million new sales.
Looking at cumulative data up to October 2023, brand-wise the Chinese EV manufacturer BYD becomes the leader for the first time with 2.04 million sales (+52.6%), followed by the Volkswagen -down 1 spot- in 2nd at 1.77 million (-6.3%).
Toyota falls 1 spot into 3rd with 1.42 million sales (-6.8%), followed by Honda with 959,669 registrations (-18.2%), Changan with 932,498 sales (+7.4%) and Geely with 794,676 units sold (+8.2%).
In 7th place ranks BMW with 651,207 sales (+4.4%), followed by Mercedes -up 1 spot– with 614,016 (+0.2%), Audi -up 4 spots- with 575,192 (+8.7%) and Wuling closing the Top 10 with 544,021 sales (-9.2%).
Best selling models in China are the BYD Qin PLUS in 1st -up 6 spots- with 355,017 sales (+36.7%) and the Tesla Model Y in 2nd -up 3 spots- with 346,462 cumulative units sold (+20.9%).
Medium-Term Market Trend
The Chinese vehicle market is the largest in the world and in the last decade it has maintained an overall positive trend. Starting from 14.0 million sales in 2011 the Chinese light vehicle market grew 7 years in a row reaching an all time high in 2017 with 25.6 million registrations. The following 2 years were both negative taking the market sales to 22.5 million in 2019.
The arrival of the pandemic in 2020 blocked the world economy making demand for cars fall world wide. The Chinese market stood its ground dropping only 5.9%, a smaller fall compared to 2019 (-7.6%), taking sales down to 21.2 million.
Post-covid the Chinese vehicle market recovered immediately with sales rising 4.0% in 2021 and 1.0% in 2022. Despite the overall trend in 2022 being positive, the last 3 months all reported losses, a negative trend that will probably continue into 2023.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands, top 10 Manufacturers Group and top 10 Models.
