The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has published a report regarding global passenger car and commercial vehicle production and registration data in the first nine months of 2022.
Accordingly, 49.81 million cars were manufactured globally during the first nine months this year, up by nine percent year on year. The global car market is negatively affected by ongoing supply chain pressures and rising geopolitical tensions, causing a decline of 2.9 percent in global new car sales in the January-September period this year. In the given period, car registrations in the EU fell by 9.9 percent to 6.8 million units.
In the EU, 7.9 million cars were manufactured in the given period, increasing by 5.8 percent year on year. The semiconductor chip supply shortage could begin to ease in the fourth quarter of 2022, allowing production volumes to slowly recover. In the region, passenger car registrations fell by 9.9 percent to 6.8 million units in the first nine months, while commercial car registrations decreased by 17.6 percent to 1.2 million units, both year on year. In the full year, commercial vehicle production in the EU is expected to decrease by 1.2 percent to nearly 3.1 million units, being affected by the semiconductor chip shortage, and the impacts of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
In the given period, passenger car production in the North America totaled 7.88 million units, increasing by 11.8 percent, driven by robust demand for new vehicles in the US, while production in South America was 1.59 million units, up by 12.4 percent, both year on year. Passenger car sales in North America totaled 9.5 million units, down by 13.3 percent compared to the same period in 2021. Commercial vehicle production in North America is expected to reach 4.6 million units in 2022, 10.5 percent higher compared to 2021, while in South America commercial vehicle production is anticipated to increase by 2.8 percent to 871,464 units in 2022.
Passenger car production in China increased by 15.1 percent to 16.36 million units in the January-September period, while passenger car registrations in the country totaled 15.3 million units, up by 8.2 percent. Regarding commercial vehicles, Chinese commercial vehicle output for 2022 is projected to be down by 29 percent to 3.9 million units, as production was severely disrupted by lockdowns during the first half of 2022.