Global sales of NEV (new energy vehicles, which include both BEV and PHEV) skyrocketed in the final two months of 2020, with various models setting historical sales records, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. TrendForce estimates total NEV sales for 2020 at 2.9 million units, a 43% increase YoY, and further expects yearly sales to reach 3.9 million units in 2021. However, as the current shortage of automotive chips has had a considerable impact on the auto industry, some uncertainties still exist in the forecast of EV sales.
Not only did automotive market take a downward turn starting in 2018, but the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 also led to noticeably insufficient procurement activities from major automotive module suppliers, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. However, as the automotive market is currently set to make a recovery, TrendForce expects yearly vehicle sales to increase from 77 million units in 2020 to 84 million units in 2021. At the same time, the rising popularity of autonomous, connected, and electric vehicles is likely to lead to a massive consumption of various semiconductor components. Even so, since most manufacturers in the automotive supply chain currently possess a relatively low inventory, due to their sluggish procurement activities last year in light of weak demand, the discrepancies in the inventory levels of various automotive components, along with the resultant manufacturing bottleneck, have substantially impaired automakers’ capacity utilization rates and, subsequently, vehicle shipments.
The dual stimuli of policies and legislative changes for new energy vehicles (NEV) have brought about a corresponding growth of battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) in 2020, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. Market data compiled by TrendForce indicate that combined yearly sales of BEV and PHEV in 2020 reached about 2.4 million units, a 19.8% increase YoY. Aside from the vehicles’ sales growth against industry headwinds generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a noticeable change in the market share and sales ranking of NEV manufacturers this year owing to the increased number of models released as well as the growth of markets outside of China.
Thanks to subsidies by various governments worldwide, the New Energy Vehicle market, including BEVs and PHEVs, maintained a positive growth in sales performance despite the major downturn experienced by the overall automotive market, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. Total New Energy Vehicle sales for 2020 are expected to reach 2.4 million units, a 19.8% increase YoY.
TrendForce today (Oct. 16) held its Annual Forecast 2021 event at the NTUH International Convention Center. Key summaries of the event can be found here.