China is the country where more cars are sold. And that is why it is filling with “used cars” that nobody has led

The car market in China has exploded. Their companies register figures never seen, registration records work at full performance and their exports are marking records.

There is only one problem: the figures are swollen.

Record sales. In China, a total of 31.44 million cars. Of these, 12.89 million were represented by the “new energy” vehicles. That is, electric cars and plug -in hybrids. The growth of the latter was excessive (35.5% more than in 2023) but it is that the total figure also grew to add 4.5% more than the previous year.

Is it a lot? A lot, no. Lot. To get an idea, usually In Spain Some more million vehicles for sale. During the crisis after 2008, sales fell until falling below 900,000 units, after a year in which 1.6 million cars were placed on the market. Since then, we have not exceeded 1.2 million vehicles bought.

Compared to Europe, the figure collected by the continent pales. In our continent, 10.6 million cars were sold throughout 2024. That is, it is time to look at the world market. According to Acea74.6 million cars were sold last year. That is, more than 40% of the cars sold throughout the globe were recorded in China.

To the world market! The figures are so impressive that, obviously, they put on the map the great Chinese manufacturers. At the moment, Toyota remains the great world manufacturer with 10.69 million cars registered in 2024, followed by Volkswagen in the distance, with 8.69 million vehicles. Hyundai and Kia, with 7.23 million cars in the streets, close the podium, according to Jato Dynamics data collected by Motor1.com.

From here, we enter some figures that will leave us an interesting fight in 2025. Stellantis was the fourth world manufacturer, with 5.64 million units but between the fifth position of General Motors (4.69 million) and the seventh of ByD there are only 420,000 units. Geely also slipped among the 10 manufacturers that sold the most cars worldwide last year.

And the trend is positive. So positive that of the 10 manufacturers that sold more cars in 2024, only three grew compared to the previous year. One is Ford but only sales increased by 1%. The others, of course, are the Chinese representatives.

Geely improved his figures from the previous year by 20%. And Byd stretched up to a growth of 41%. The figure promises to be even higher in 2025, the year in which a Objective of 5.5 million cars. That would put her on the way to overcome Stellantis and place himself as The fifth or, in the best case, fourth producer World Cup.

Tightening the accelerator. Byd is doing everything possible to get those figures to continue growing. To do this, his landing in Europe will continue. He Byd Dolphin Surf It is raised as a key vehicle to gain ground among low -price electric vehicles, its Byd Seal U DM-I (plug -in hybrid) is being a success and very soon will begin to produce in Hungary. For now, now has exceeded Tesla sales in Europe.

And he is also doing it in China. Over there has launched an aggressive price war To continue keeping sales at high, put the rivals against the ropes and, above all, give out a stock of vehicles difficult to sell now that they promised that Your autonomous driving capabilities They would reach all their vehicles, regardless of the price.

And all these cars? It is what the Chinese government seems to be saying to its manufacturers. Reuters It points exclusively that those responsible for the State have called a meeting to manufacturers. They are worried, according to the agency, what can happen if the number of automatures is faded.

Thus, they have asked all companies responsibility but in Reuters They put the focus on Byd and Dongfeng Motors. Its dealers are selling as “used vehicles” cars that nobody has really used. Wei Jianjun, president of Great Wall Motor, assured in an interview with Sina Finance that there were between 3,000 and 4,000 dealers acting in this way.

Km 0. That formula is what we know in Europe as “Kilometer cars 0”. They are cars that manufacturers enroll or force dealers to buy to keep the business with them. These cars count on records such as sales of new vehicles and, subsequently, in the sales count as used vehicles.

The manufacturer can use this strategy for several reasons. The first is an answer to regulations. If activated, for example, the obligation to sell serial cars with A broad security equipment or one NEW EMISSION REGULATION And the company has them standing in a warehouse, it is better to enroll them and try to give them out as used vehicles.

Another issue is that of dealers who may have minimal sales quotas against manufacturers. This leads to the obligation to get cars that has not managed to sell and give them out later. The advantage and disadvantage for the client is evident: a cheaper car but without the possibility of choosing anything of its equipment.

A price war with direct consequences. Wei Jianjun, president of Great Wall Motors, came to ensure in the interview that the automobile sector was living His own “Evergrande”comparing the industry with the collapse that occurred in the real estate sector with the bankruptcy of this company. Without giving names, he said that some of China’s “main manufacturers” had rushed to improve their image and, with it, the market value.

That same market value has fallen generalized since Byd opened a new price war with great discounts on more than 20 models offered. Investors fear that these discounts will destabilize an industry that is already especially competitive.

Why is it a problem? But, above all, it is feared that the numbers are too swollen, that in the fever to grow as quickly as possible, they are playing in excess with automatrications and, therefore, a stock of vehicles is accumulated to which it is very difficult to give out.

Bernstein Research calculations collected by The Wall Street JournalIt was expected that the production of Chinese vehicles would increase by about 5 million units between 2023 and 2025. However, the Chinese market only had the capacity to absorb about 3.7 million cars.

Accumulating stock is problematic because every day that passes it is more complicated to sell that same car since it becomes obsolete, it depreciates (there is more hurry to place it in the market) and, therefore, the brand image is damaged. It is something that Stellantis either Tesla They can explain to any Chinese brand.

Photo | Byd

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