China wholesales Full Year 2024: BYD above 3.5 million sales, domestic brands at 61% share

The BYD Seagull ends the year at #3.

Discover almost 45 years of Chinese Historical Data here.

Data by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show new vehicle shipments up 4.5% year-on-year in 2024 top 31,436,000 units, a new record. This is helped by December figures up 10.5% to 3,489,000 as last quarter sales were buoyed by an effective government scrappage scheme. Passenger vehicle wholesales are up 5.8% to 27,563,000 with December volumes up 11.7% to 3,120,000 units. In contrast commercial vehicles underperform this year with wholesales down -3.9% to 3,873,000 including 369,000 in December (+1.2%). The country can’t get enough of New Energy Vehicles: they are up a stunning +35.5% to 12,866,000 units. BEVs are up 15.5% to 7,719,000 while PHEVs surge 83.3% to 5,141,000. NEV share of the total market (including commercials) is 40.9% in 2024 vs. 31.6% in 2023. Domestic NEV sales are up 39.7% to 11,582,000 while exports are up 6.7% to 1,284,000.

Li Auto sells over 500,000 units in 2024.

Exports jump 19.3% to 5,859,000 including 4,955,000 passenger vehicles (+19.7%) and 904,000 commercial vehicles (+17.5%). December exports edge up just 1.1% to 504,000 including 426,000 passenger vehicles (+1.1%) and 78,000 commercials (+1%). Figures by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) are slightly different, putting PV wholesales at 27,191,000 units, up 6.3% year-on-year. In the detail, SUVs are up 12% to 14,664,000, Cars up 0.7% to 11,443,000 and MPVs down -2.7% to 1,084,000. According to CPCA, domestic brands hold 61% of the Passenger Vehicle market in 2024 vs. 52.4% in 2023.

The Tesla Model Y repeats at #1 in China.

2024 is the year BYD (+36.8%) sailed off in the distance and took complete control of its home market, selling over 3.5 million units, almost one million more than in 2023. The carmaker was helped by the lifts of models such as the Seagull (+89.6%), Destroyer 05 (+153.2%) and Song L (+3025%) but most of all by a never-ending flow of successful new launches, adding up to almost 650,000 sales. The Qin L (230,000), Seal 06 (194,000), Yuan UP (135,000) and Sealion 07 (62,000) are particularly impressive. As is predictable given the rising share of domestic brands in China, sales of almost all foreign carmakers have crashed in 2024. Volkswagen is down -6.7% to 2.08 million units and Toyota off -7.3% to 1.58 million. There are some bright spots for the two legacy carmakers though, with Volkswagen enjoying good returns from the ID.3 (+23.9%), ID.4 X (+42.8%), Passat (+25.4%), Tayron (+28.8%) and Teramont (+11.6%) while Toyota is helped by bZ3 (+97.2%), Granvia (+61.3%), Corolla Cross (+33.7%) and Sienna (+16.8%).

Leapmotor doubles its sales year-on-year in 2024.

Geely (+23.7%) overtakes a freefalling Honda (-26.7%) to snap the 4th spot overall while Changan (-18%) is one of rare mainstream Chinese carmakers in negative for the year. Wuling (+13.5%) and Chery (+41.5%) are both solid to rank #7 and #8 respectively. Tesla (+8.9%) is simply the only foreign manufacturer to post a year-on-year uptick in 2024. It leapfrogs past BMW (-12.9%), Audi (-9.8%) and Mercedes (-3.9%) to break into the Top 10 at #9. Nissan (-11%) also slides at #11. Below we have the domestic stars of the 2024 Chinese market: Li Auto (+33.1%) passes the half-million annual sales mark and peaked at #10 in September, Hongqi (+10%) is above 400,000 for the first time while Jetour (+93.6%), peaking at #13 in October, and AITO (+279.8%) both deliver sensational results. Li Auto broke its monthly volume record three times, lifting it to 58,513, Jetour broke it 6 times including 5 consecutively, lifting it from 29,555 to 49,810 and AITO broke it 3 times to 40,822.

AITO sales soar 279.8% in 2024.

Just outside the Top 20 we have a handful more of domestic high performers. Leapmotor (+97.2%) almost doubles its year-ago volume and sees its monthly best surge from 18,618 at the start of the year to 40,173 in December, breaking that record for 7 consecutive months. Lynk & Co (+28.2%) lifted its monthly record to 31,237 in November, Zeekr (+87.2%) did so 6 times to lift it from 13,476 to 27,190, NIO (+25.7%) did it twice, TANK (+33.6%) also did it twice, Deepal (+42.6%) did it three times from 15,046 to 27,382 and Xpeng (+24.2%) also three times to 34,092. Xiaomi is by far the biggest launch of the year, reaching 139,500 sales in just 9 months and a record 25,815 in December.

Mission accomplished for Xiaomi.

Looking at the models ranking separately, the Tesla Model Y (+5.2%) keeps the lead by the skin of its teeth for just 284 units above the BYD Qin Plus (+10.6%). In fact the Qin Plus was #1 year-to-date all the way to end November and lost the top spot during the last few days of the year, if not the last day. BYD places three models in the Top 4 with the Seagull (+89.6%) up seven spots on 2023 to end its first full year of sales at #3, ranking #1 for three months. The Song Plus (+7.2%) is down one spot to #4 while the Nissan Sylphy (-9.5%) rounds out the Top 5. BYD has another four models inside the Top 13: the Yuan Plus (-11.2%) at #7, the Song Pro (+15.2%) at #10, the new Qin L at #12 (best-selling 2024 launch) and the Han (+0.4%) at #13.

Previous year: China wholesales 2023: BYD ends 37 years of Volkswagen domination

2 years ago: China wholesales 2022: BYD challenges Volkswagen, places Song Plus at #1 in market up 2.1%

Full December and Year 2024 Top 109 All brands and Top 668 All models vs. Full Year 2023 data below.