What is more interesting is that this Chinese split is actually to be the norm for quite a while already.
While it is perhaps not a surprise to anyone anymore on how big the Chinese auto industry has become, there will always be certain stats that come about once in a while to hammer home how truly gargantuan it is. And the most recent one of these is for it the news that in March 2024, 1 in every 3 new cars sold worldwide were to be from a Chinese automaker.
Yes, according to Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), Chinese cars accounted for 33% of the world’s monthly 8.15 million vehicle sales in March 2024. Though funnily enough, if this stat should come as a shock to anyone, it really shouldn’t actually, because the 33% share that Chinese cars occupy among the global auto sales is to have been the norm for a few years already.
See, even from 2016 to 2018, Chinese car sales had already accounted for around 30% of the world’s car sales, before dropping a tad to 29% in 2019. The share then rebounded back to 32% in 2020 to 2021, and eventually rising to the current 33% figure in 2022.
What is nevertheless an interesting (albeit adjacent) point worth making here with regards to recent global car sales is for Geely to have snuck into the top 10 list (at 10th) of the global automaker sales ranking during the first quarter of 2024. The parent company of Proton and Volvo managed to sell a total of 738,400 vehicles between January and March of this year, which was sufficient to see it claim 3.5% of the world’s market share in auto sales during that period.
Just behind Geely meanwhile is BYD and Chery, with 3.2% and 3% of the global auto sales market share during the first quarter of this year. It is worth highlighting though that BYD’s global market share predominantly comes from its 9% stake in its home market, while Chery’s 3% piece of the Chinese pie is to be supplemented by its 2% and 6% sales share in the North American and European market respectively.
More interesting too is that both BYD and Chery has since superseded Mercedes-Benz and BMW in terms of global sales share during the first quarter of 2024, with Changan and SAIC incidentally to be right behind those premium German giants too. The latter Chinese automaker in particular is to also currently rank at the top of Chinese auto exporters in the first three months of this year, with the parent company of MG having shipped out 126,053 cars during this period.
Coming in second meanwhile in the Chinese export rankings during the first quarter of this year is Chery, with 117,719 cars. Great Wall Motor’s 77,935 cars on the other hand outstrips BYD’s 51,138 for the last spot on the podium place.
Looking at the bigger picture now in terms of global car sales, there is to be a year-on-year increase of 3% for global car sales in the first quarter, with 21.05 million cars sold worldwide from January to March 2024. And among the global automaker sales rankings in 2024, first-place Toyota manages the no small feat of being the only auto group with more than 10% market share to itself.
Second and third place on the global sales ranking is to be the Volkswagen and Hyundai auto groups, with 9.5% and 7.4% of the global auto sales pie in the first quarter respectively. Together, these three companies accounted for 27.5% of the world’s market share.
