As 2024 draws to a close, China's auto industry is once again showing strong growth momentum. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) expects that automobile production and sales are expected to exceed the 30 million mark again this year, signaling that China's automobile market remains vigorous after years of adjustment.

Against this backdrop, the new energy passenger car market has become the biggest bright spot. The Passenger Vehicle Market Information Association predicts that this year's passenger vehicle retail growth will reach 5.8% to 6%, a growth rate that exceeds last year's, with sales of new energy passenger vehicles expected to reach 11 million units. Since July this year, the penetration rate of new energy passenger cars in the retail market has exceeded 50% for five consecutive months, marking that new energy vehicles have become the mainstream choice in the market.

The rapid growth of the new energy market has not only changed the competitive landscape of the domestic auto market, but also promoted the transformation and change of traditional car companies. In the era of fuel cars proudly “king”, such as SAIC Group, due to the new energy transition pace is slow, has been the new energy newcomer BYD beyond. BYD with its strong new energy technology strength and keen market insight, sales continue to climb, has been two consecutive months of monthly sales of more than 500,000 units, set a new sales record for domestic car companies, and is expected to be crowned the annual domestic auto sales champion.

At the same time, the new forces battlefield has experienced a new round of elimination and integration. The initial generation of new domestic car-making forces, represented by Xiaopeng, Azure and Nezha, are facing more intense market competition on the 10th anniversary of their founding. The entry of new forces such as Xiaomi and Hongmeng Zhixing has made the market competition more and more heated. In the fierce competition, some new forces brands such as Gaohe Auto and Jieyue Auto have or will soon withdraw from the market, while brands such as Ideal Auto and Hongmeng Zhixing have maintained better sales momentum and become the leaders of the new forces market.

In terms of price wars, this year's car market has shown a trend of normalization. Compared with last year's irrational price war in some areas relying on subsidies, this year's price war relies more on the overall supply chain cost decline, gradually moving towards rationality. BYD launched two new plug-in hybrid models at the beginning of the year, which significantly lowered the starting price to more than 70,000 yuan, further squeezing the fuel car market. Since then, more car companies to join the price war, including BBA and other luxury car companies also once in the price war repeatedly horizontal jump. However, with the addition of policies and the gradual maturation of the market in the fourth quarter, the pressure of the price war has eased.

In terms of intelligentization, the focus of the second half of the new energy competition gradually appeared. Tesla launched intelligent driving “end-to-end” technology route, Peng, ideal, azure, Huawei, BYD and many other companies have to speed up this new field of technology research and development. Traditional automakers such as Guangzhou Automobile Works and Shanghai Automobile Works are also rumored to be cooperating with Huawei to accelerate intelligent transformation. With the possible entry of Tesla FSD into China, the industry predicts that next year, car companies will engage in a more intense competition in the intelligent driving end.

Looking ahead, China's auto market still maintains strong growth potential. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) predicts that auto production and sales will continue to run at a high level next year, and calls for the continuation and early introduction of policies to promote auto consumption. Meanwhile, as the year-on-year growth rate of new energy vehicle sales continues to outperform the broader market, it is expected that the cumulative retail sales of new energy vehicles will overtake that of fuel vehicles in 2025, which will be realized in the second quarter at the latest. Under this trend, hybrid models will usher in greater development opportunities and become an important growth point for the market.

In conclusion, China's auto industry in 2024 has realized a leap from quantitative to qualitative change under the leadership of new energy. In the future, with the continuous progress of technology and the growing maturity of the market, China's auto industry will usher in a broader development prospect.

Content synthesized and organized by Beijing Daily