Why Innovative Countries Buy Minibuses From China

People are buying cars (buy SUVs, buy minibuses, buy MPV and etc ) every day. Do you know the export or import vehicle units in your country?

1. The biggest Automobile Manufacturer in World.

In recent years, China is the biggest auto manufacturer in the world. More than a quarter of global passenger car production was in China. See from the data of the year 2018, more than the total number of the European Union. But in terms of export, compared with many export-oriented car production countries, there is still a lot of improvement space for China’s auto export at this stage. These are the top 15 car exporters in the world in 2019 report from media. The top one is Germany, then Japan, United States, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, Belgium, United Kingdom, Spain, Slovakia, France, Czech Republic, Italy, Turkey, and Sweden. This rank is according to the total export value but not the vehicle unit. These 15 countries taken 85% of the total value of the world.

From the export volume, China has exported about 295,000 commercial vehicles (Including people who buy SUVs, buy minibuses, buy MPV and etc). Also 725,000 passenger vehicles (Including complete sets of spare parts). A total of about a million exports looks good. But if you compare that with the total domestic production of 21 million vehicles last year, it is undeniable that China’s car exports are still very limited, with less than 5% of exports.

2. Automobile Export Development of Recent 11 years in China

Throughout the 11 years, the development of China automobile export (Including people buy SUVs, buy minibuses, buy MPV and etc) can be divided into three stages. The first stage was from 2009 to 2012, which was a period of rapid growth in China’s export of automobiles, reaching a peak of more than one million in 2012. The second stage was from 2013 to 2016.

Affected by the global economic downturn, the total vehicle export declined for four consecutive years and reached the lowest point in 2016. It is with only 700,000 unit vehicles. Next is the third stage, from 2017 to the middle of 2019. This is leading by “One Belt One Road” and rising demand from emerging markets. Also, auto exports began to recover rapidly, and China’s total vehicle exports recovered to one million units. Unfortunately, this trend was brought to a halt by the COVID-19 epidemic at the beginning of 2020. The future situation largely affected by the development of COVID-19 in China and the world. But fortunately, the situation in the world is getting better and better.

3. Automobile Export Countries Analysis   

Developing countries and new marketing are always the main targets of China’s automobile export. Especially under the guidance of “One Belt One Road”, corresponding countries and regions along the line of many areas. Such as West Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and other countries are obviously increased a lot. In general, the target countries of China’s export are mainly concentrated in the countries along the One Belt One Road related to Asia. Then next is the Africa market, the exporting countries are relatively scattered.

Among these export target countries, we should attention to several countries. In terms of automobile consumption in West Asian countries, Iran has long ranked first. It is importing more than 190,000 vehicles (Including people buy SUVs, buy minibuses, buy MPV and etc) from China in 2018. But affected by the U.S. sanctions against Iran, less than a thousand in 2019, a decline of 99%! Chile is our biggest customer in South America and has always been one of the top five or even three exporting countries of our country. Mexico in North America also imports a large number of vehicles from China. Moreover, even ranked first among China’s car exporters in 2019. Other countries such as Russia and Algeria are also key export countries.

Although exports of Chinese auto brands have grown over the past decade, China still has a long way to go to become a major exporter of the automobile. As China’s exports are more concentrated in the low-end market segment, the number of vehicles China exported to developed countries accounted for only 12 percent of the total in 2019. Therefore, made in China automobile is not a threaten to Japanese or European automakers yet.

4. Automobile Sales Rise 74.9% in March from a Year Earlier

In March, the production and sales of automobiles (Including people buy SUVs, buy minibuses, buy MPV and etc) reached 2.462 million units and 2.526 million units respectively, up 71.6 percent and 74.9 percent on-year respectively.

The production and sales of passenger vehicles reached 1.883 million units and 1.874 million units respectively. It is up 77.4 percent year on year. In terms of vehicle types, the production and sales of passenger cars reached 861,000 and 871,000 units respectively. It is up 71.2% and 73.7% year on year respectively. SUV production and sales reached 890,000 units and 877,000 units respectively, up 77.4% and 79.6% year on year respectively; The production and sales of MPV reached 106,000 units and 93,000 units respectively. This is with year-on-year growth of 203.2% and 105.3% respectively. The production and sales of crossover passenger cars reached 27,000 and 33,000 units respectively. It is up 18.8 percent and 56.6 percent year on year respectively.

5. Sales of New Energy Automobiles in March increased 2.4 times year on year

In March, the production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 216,000 and 226,000 units respectively. It is an increase of 2.5 times and 2.4 times respectively compared with the same period last year. In terms of vehicle types, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles reached 182,000 and 190,000 units respectively. It is an increase of 2.6 times and 2.5 times over the same period last year. The production and sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles reached 34,000 units and 36,000 units respectively. It is a year-on-year increase of 2 times and 1.9 times respectively. The production and sales of fuel cell vehicles reached 45 units and 59 units respectively, with year-on-year growth of 18.4% and 63.9% respectively.

In March, 132,000 vehicles were exported, up 45.5 percent year on year. By model type, the export of passenger cars reached 99,000 units, up 45.3 percent year on year. Exports of commercial vehicles (Including people buy SUVs, buy minibuses, minivan, buy MPV and etc) totaled 33,000 units, up 46.2% year on year.

Above data from China Automotive Industry Association. The production and sales base of automobiles affected by COVID-19 is relatively low in 2020, so the year-on-year growth rate of 2021 is extremely high.