China Automobile Industry Association released data on automobile production and sales in March. The data show that in March, China's auto production and sales completed 2.462 million and 2526000 vehicles respectively, up 63.9% and 73.6% on month, respectively, up 71.6% and 74.9% year on year.

　　Domestic car market sales are stronger, new energy vehicles become one of the growth engines. In March, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 216000 and 226000 respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 2.5 times and 2.4 times respectively, continuing to refresh the production and sales records. Another obvious feature is that the production and sales cycle ratio of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles are growing rapidly in the main new energy vehicles.

　　Xuhaidong, deputy chief engineer of China Automobile Industry Association, said that with the joint efforts of domestic and foreign auto enterprises, the quality of new energy vehicles products has been improved, meeting the needs of consumers. Therefore, the China Automobile Association is still optimistic about the sales performance of new energy vehicles in the whole year.

　　The production and sales of new energy vehicle enterprises in China have increased rapidly. BYD's production and sales express showed that 55619 new energy vehicles were produced from January to March, an increase of 149.22% year-on-year. In March, 7257 new cars were delivered by Weilai automobile, an increase of 373.4% year-on-year; from January to March, 20060 new vehicles were delivered, an increase of 422.7% year-on-year.

　　Driven by market demand, in recent years, China's new energy vehicle basic materials, basic parts, motors, electric control, batteries and vehicles have made obvious breakthroughs. The relevant data show that at present, there are more than 228000 new energy vehicle related enterprises in China.

　　At the same time, domestic high-end models are gradually becoming more and more competitive with international brands. On April 7, the 100000 vehicles of Weilai automobile were offline, with an average price of more than 420000 yuan. Weilai automobile has become the first auto enterprise in China to sell its own brand for an average price of more than 400000 yuan.

　　In response, Dong Yang, former vice president and Secretary General of China Automobile Industry Association, said that Weilai's achievements are another important milestone for China's auto industry and also bring confidence to Chinese automobile enterprises, which proves that independent innovation can be sustained.

　　At present, the new energy vehicle ownership in China has taken shape. According to statistics, as of March 2021, the number of new energy vehicles in China has reached 5.51 million. Among them, the total number of pure electric vehicles is 4.49 million, accounting for 81.53% of the total new energy vehicles. In the first quarter of this year, the new registration of new energy vehicles accounted for 6.21% of the new registration volume of vehicles.

　　Xuhaidong said the sales target of 1.8 million vehicles mentioned by the China Automobile Association at the beginning of the year remained unchanged.

　　Meanwhile, the association reminded that the production and sales data of passenger cars in March were down compared with the same period in 2019, which may be related to chip supply. Xu said the Auto Association expected a better supply of chips in the second half of the year, but it is now judged to wait until the fourth quarter. "Chip impact superimposed on the high-speed recovery of the car market in the second quarter of last year, and the growth of sales volume in single month in the second quarter of this year will be affected to some extent."

　　Li Bin, chairman of Weilai automobile, said that next, Weilai automobile will still face multiple challenges including chips, technologies and services, "especially whether the relevant automatic driving technology of intelligent electric vehicles, as well as battery technology, can maintain the product leadership will be the ultimate challenge.".