The Chinese Passenger Vehicle market is on track for sales of ~22 million units in 2021 – equal to the 2019 level. But the segment mix will differ from 2019, and “the rate of recovery from the 2020 decline will be far from uniform across the various sales groups per LMC. In terms of market status the Premium share is expected to improve from 14% in 2019 to 18%. The Low-Cost segment is forecast to end 2021 with 2% market share, up from 0.5% in 2019. Click to Enlarge.
The Chinese central government put into action a series of policies focused on ample monetary funding and pro-active fiscal measures during the still ongoing Covid crisis. With the effective containment of the virus in China from strong government public health/common good rules and regulations, the government intervention resulted in a quick economic recovery. While the auto market in other major economies floundered during the second half of 2020, the Chinese auto market beat expectations. The recovery continues during 2021.
As with most statistics though, the devil is hiding in the details. Consultancy LMC Automotive says there is an enduring imbalance in the economy’s internal structure: the performance of the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) among medium and large enterprises is significantly better than that among smaller enterprises. Continue reading
FIH Mobile, Stellantis JV Begun on Connected Car Technology
Mobile Drive will develop infotainment, telematics, and a cloud service platform.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., (“Foxconn”) (TPE: 2317) together with its subsidiary FIH Mobile Ltd., (“FIH”) (HKG:2038) and Stellantis N.V. (NYSE / MTA / Euronext Paris: STLA) (“Stellantis”) late yesterday announced that they have entered into a joint venture agreement dubbed Mobile Drive.
It will focus on delivering – marketing babble alert> “smart cockpit solutions for vehicles that will disrupt current design conventions and foster the development of intelligent connected vehicles.” Continue reading →