According to the data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) on June 14, Pickup sales in May 2024 were 45,000, the same as last year, with an increase of 1.7% month-on-month, which is at a relatively high level in the past 5 years. CAAM pointed out that the results were still good for May, as the base last year was relatively high. From January to May this year, pickup sales reached 218,000, an increase of 4.1% year-on-year, with overall performance being good.
CAAM noted that the effect of opening up urban road rights for pickups was far less effective than that of encouraging pickups to go to rural areas, and the former has become a false proposition. The pickup market in Northwest, Southwest, Central, Northeast and other regions continues to strengthen, although the national stimulus measures to boost consumption and unreasonable measures to restrict consumption have been gradually lifted, the demand for pickups in cities with purchase restrictions and traffic restrictions remains weak. Under the pressure of the sluggish real estate market, pickup sales in the county and rural markets have grown well compared with last year.
In May, the sales volume of pickups was the same as last year, and exports accounted for 45% of the sales volume, making it the strongest category in the commercial vehicle market. Due to the insufficient production capacity of international automakers and the large supply-demand imbalance, the demand for China's overseas automotive market has grown rapidly in recent years, driving the continuous growth of China's pickup exports since 2022. From January to May 2024, exports still showed strong year-on-year growth, with Great Wall Motors, SAIC-GM-Wuling and JAC Motors showing particularly strong export performance. In the past two years, the export volume of some pickup manufacturers accounted for more than 40% of their total production.
During May, the volume of domestic pickup sales showed weak growth compared to last year, mainly due to the influence of the high base after the recovery of all industries in spring last year. The performance of pickups from Great Wall Motors, Jiangling Motors, Zhengzhou Nissan, Jiangxi Isuzu and other traditional leading manufacturers in the domestic market continues to be strong, and the pattern of one top three pickups from Great Wall Motors, Jiangling Motors, Zhengzhou Nissan and Jiangxi Isuzu continues to be maintained. The domestic electric pickup market is gradually launching, and more new energy pickup products are expected to meet the demand of domestic and foreign markets in the future.