Zhijing Finance APP learned that Cui Dongshu, the Secretary-General of China Passenger Car Association, released the 'Analysis of the Pickup Truck Market in October 2024', pointing out that the pickup truck production in October 2024 was 0.0405 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 4%; the sales of pickup trucks in October were 0.041 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 1%, a month-on-month decrease of 9%, remaining at the median level of the past five years. The pickup truck sales from January to October this year reached 0.427 million units, achieving a year-on-year growth of 2%, with an overall good performance. Great Wall Motor continues to maintain a strong leading position in the pickup truck market, performing well domestically and internationally. In the domestic pickup truck market, Great Wall Motor, Jiangling Motors Corporation, Zhengzhou Nissan, Jiangxi Isuzu, and others continue to be optimistic; the pattern of 'one super and three strong' in the pickup truck market continues to be maintained.

The export of pickup trucks in October was 0.02 million units, a year-on-year increase of 63%, with the industry's export proportion continuing to remain high. From January to October 2024, the proportion of pickup truck exports accounted for 45% of the total pickup truck sales, reaching 47% in October 2024. The export performance of domestically produced pickup trucks in China has improved significantly. As an internationalized vehicle type, pickup trucks have become the strongest category in China's commercial vehicle exports.

Cui Dongshu stated that in the past two years, the production of international car companies has been insufficient, resulting in a large supply-demand gap. This has laid the foundation for China's pickup truck exports overseas and has also driven the continuous growth of China's pickup truck exports since 2022. From January to October this year, pickup truck exports continue to show a strong year-on-year growth trend. Some pickup truck companies have seized the export opportunities to achieve strong growth, such as Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp., Ltd., Chongqing Changan Automobile, Great Wall Motor, and SAIC Maxus, all having significant export volumes, accounting for more than half of each manufacturer's total pickup truck sales.

In 2024, the national sales of new energy pickup trucks reached 9,217 units, a year-on-year increase of 58%. There were 1,045 new energy pickup trucks sold in October, a 64% year-on-year increase, showing a strong trend compared to gasoline pickup trucks. With the surge in logistics demand for electric light trucks, the idea of 'pickup trucks entering the city' is misleading; the effect of 'pickup trucks going to the countryside' is much better. The proportion of pickup truck sales in county-level markets compared to last year continues to show good growth, effectively offsetting the shrinkage of pickup trucks in domestic cities. With the launch of the domestic electric pickup truck market, electric pickup trucks like Geely Radar are gradually developing the market; it is expected that more new energy pickup truck products will meet domestic and foreign demand in the future.

1. Overall Analysis of the Pickup Truck Market:

1. Monthly Trends in the Pickup Truck Market Over the Years

In 2024, the wholesale market trend of pickups shows high, medium, and low levels. The opening in January was relatively strong, with a moderate peak in March sprint, a weaker trend from May to September, and a recovery in October. In 2023, due to an early Spring Festival compared to previous years, the pickup trend from May to October this year benefited from the late Spring Festival factor.

Pickups belong to the category of means of production vehicles. Because there are relatively few purchases of pickups before the Spring Festival, pickup sales from March to December after the Spring Festival enter the peak season. This is also a growth point for the demand from real estate, engineering projects, and institutional purchases.

The sales volume of passenger vehicles represents the quality of life and pursuit of Chinese consumers, while the sales volume of commercial vehicles represents the development of small businesses and small private owners in China. Only when the demand for commercial vehicles increases and basic livelihood issues are addressed can there be a possibility of recovery in the passenger vehicle market.

The pickup market also directly reflects the development of small private owners. The pickup market represented by Great Wall Motor has become the vanguard of the automotive market recovery after the epidemic. However, with the real estate slump and greater pressure on operations in the tertiary industry, the recovery of the pickup market is also challenging. The pickup market is becoming increasingly complex due to the rapid activity in the overseas pickup export market.

With the trend of middle-aged groups enjoying recreational culture, the space for self-driving and rural outings is expanding, and more people are choosing pickups for leisure.

2. National Pickup Market Trends in October

In October 2024, the pickup market sold 0.041 million vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 1% and a month-on-month decrease of 9%, at a median level of the past five years. The pickup sales from January to October this year reached 0.427 million vehicles, achieving a year-on-year increase of 2%, overall performing well.

In 2018, the pickup truck sales volume was 0.45 million, a 10% increase; in 2019, the cumulative sales of pickup trucks were 0.44 million, a 3% year-on-year decrease; in 2020, it was 0.48 million, a strong 9% year-on-year increase; in 2021, the pickup truck sales reached 0.55 million, a 14% year-on-year increase, approaching a recent peak.

The overall pickup truck trend in 2022 was relatively stable, reaching 0.513 million units, a 6% decrease from 2021. In 2023, the overall pickup truck sales were 0.513 million, a 0.1% year-on-year decrease, showing a relatively stable trend. Considering the trends of the past two years, pickups still perform relatively well compared to light trucks.

3. Pickup truck exports show strong performance.

In October 2024, pickup truck exports reached 0.0196 million units, with a good year-on-year growth rate. The trend this year is similar to 2022, with a significant decline in the peak in October compared to September, but with greater overall fluctuations this year.

Great Wall Motor, SAIC Datong, Changan Automobile, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp.,Ltd., BAIC Foton, and other companies have performed excellently in exports. However, a notable common feature is the recent slowdown in the growth rate of commercial vehicle exports.

The national pickup truck market saw cumulative exports of 0.132 million units in 2023, with a 4% growth rate. This year, the overall industry export led by Great Wall Motor has been outstanding. In October 2024, pickup truck exports reached 0.02 million units, a 63% year-on-year increase, maintaining a high industry export share. From January to October 2024, pickup truck exports accounted for 45% of total pickup sales, reaching 47% in October 2024, showing good progress in China's domestic pickup truck exports.

4. Pickup powertrain structure

The national new energy pickup truck market is gradually rising. With the hot sales of Tesla's pickup truck, China's new energy pickup trucks are also gradually entering a large-scale development.

In 2024, the national sales of new energy pickup trucks reached 9,217 units, a year-on-year increase of 58%. In October, new energy pickup trucks reached 1,045 units, a year-on-year increase of 64%, forming a better trend than conventional fuel pickup trucks.

2. Characteristics of pickup truck market sales regions

1. Regional changes in the pickup truck market

The main regions of the pickup truck market are mainly in the northwest and southwest, with a large demand for pickup trucks in the western regions. The demand for pickup trucks in the northwest region in October was strong. Currently, the demand for pickup trucks in the southwest and northwest regions accounts for about 44% of the overall demand, becoming the demand of two major core markets, with the southwest market being larger this year.

The western market has maintained a relatively stable trend recently, while the eastern region has declined. Although the economy is active, the pickup truck markets in the central and southern areas have not seen significant growth.

Pickup trucks still perform relatively well in the northern and western markets, mainly due to the relatively inactive economy in these regions, mainly driven by agriculture and engineering construction.

The development of private passenger pickup trucks still needs further strengthening, with pickup truck sales in Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai showing some recovery this year. The recent great wall motor passenger pickup trucks are still worth looking forward to.

2. Analysis of Pickup Truck Sales Regions

The main sales regions in the pickup truck market are still mainly in small and medium-sized cities and rural markets. However, the performance in rural markets in October is relatively weak. In October 2024, large and medium-sized cities and restricted markets like Beijing performed well. Rural markets continue to be stable, and major urban markets currently do not show any clear breakthrough features.

The market in extra-large cities is gradually contracting, and in restricted markets, the pickup truck market in Beijing is performing well due to the shortage of licenses. Markets like Shenzhen and Tianjin, which showed relatively strong performance earlier, are currently in a weak state. Chongqing and Chengdu are relatively strong performers. Hangzhou, as a large market with a geographical area larger than Beijing, has good demand for pickup trucks in the tea market.

III. Competitive Analysis of China's Pickup Truck Market

1. Analysis of pickup truck manufacturers

In 2024, the main pickup truck manufacturers in the market performed well. Great Wall Motors maintains a strong absolute dominance position in pickup trucks. Chongqing Changan Automobile had a strong performance in the overseas export market in October. Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp.,Ltd. and Jiangling Motors Corporation had a strong performance in October, while SAIC Datong and Zhengzhou Nissan maintained a strong domestic market position as main players.

With the surge in the pickup truck export market, SAIC Datong, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp.,Ltd., and Chongqing Changan Automobile have quickly risen, squeezing the sales of tail-end companies, forming a characteristic where leading companies are squeezing the sales of trailing companies.

Lately, the strong pickup truck manufacturers from traditional large groups have performed very well, especially with outstanding export performance like SAIC Datong. Great Wall Motors' pickup trucks have performed well both domestically and internationally, with strong vitality in launching new products. Jiangling Motors Corporation's pickup trucks have quickly rebounded. Comparatively, SAIC Datong and Chongqing Changan Automobile, which are considered as emerging forces, have performed well in the pickup truck segment.

2. Trends in domestic market share of pickup truck manufacturers

In 2024, the domestic retail pickup truck market continues to maintain a very strong trend, but is starting to show a gradual differentiation trend. Great Wall Motors' pickup truck sales are outstanding.

In October this year, Great Wall Motor's pickup truck domestic market share leads by 50%, while Jiangling Motors Corporation, Zhengzhou Nissan, Jiangxi Isuzu and others maintain a strong position. The domestic market competition pattern is relatively stable, with many manufacturers showing strong export performance recently, therefore the overall pickup truck market is strong.

3. Export trends of pickup truck manufacturers

Great Wall Motor's pickup truck export volume cumulatively remains first over the years, but SAIC Maxus, Chongqing Changan Automobile and other pickup truck exports have shown super strong performance. Due to SAIC Group's good export foundation and strong export system, SAIC Maxus has shown strong export growth.

Recently, the export growth of pickups and others has slowed down, facing a significant impact from overseas supply improvement and weakening demand.

4. Monthly sales trends of the pickup truck market

The main pickup truck cities in the country are currently Chongqing, Chengdu, Urumqi, Harbin and other Southwest, Northeast, and Northwest regions. Zhengzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen and other major cities have a certain scale of demand. Shenzhen has shown strong performance recently.

5. Pickup Monthly Regional Trends

In recent years, with the upgrade to China VI emission standards, the pace of pickup product updates and iterations has accelerated, and this year the pickup market has entered an adjustment period. According to pickup market tracking, Great Wall Motor occupies an absolute dominant position of nearly 50% in the domestic market, with outstanding market share in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

The top 3 total market share of pickups reaches 85%, among which Jiangling Motors performs well in the Southwest and the Yangtze River Basin; Zhengzhou Nissan performs well in the Northwest and Southwest regions; Isuzu in Jiangxi performs strongly in the Southwest and Northwest regions.

In 2024, the incremental demand mainly comes from the Southwest region and the Northeast market. Sales are mainly in the existing fields of engineering & construction, municipal electrical utilities, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery, wholesale and retail trade, as well as new customers in high-end, passenger vehicle-oriented, and off-road vehicle categories.

With the aging population in China exacerbating, there is a clear trend of aging among migrant workers, with a noticeable trend of migrant workers returning to their hometowns, driving the recovery of small cities and county markets. Traditional mainstream vehicle manufacturers have strong performances in their block orders models, Great Wall Motor's product innovation is very effective, and new products like the Jingang Pao demonstrate outstanding performance.