"Latest observations on the automobile market: Passenger cars and pure electric vehicles face challenges, while the light truck market continues to be promising!"

For the tire market, changes in the automobile market also mean new opportunities and challenges. Recently, overseas passenger car sales have declined, and the pure electric market has declined. Fortunately, the light truck market has shown a significant growth trend.

EU passenger car sales decline
According to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, sales in the EU passenger car market fell by 1.9% in November 2024. France led the decline, with a decline of 12.7%, followed by Italy (-10.8%), while the German market was slightly stagnant (0.5%). Of the four most important EU markets, only Spain achieved positive growth (6.4%).

In the first 11 months, new car registrations in the EU remained stable (+0.4%), reaching 9.7 million vehicles. The Spanish market was positive (+5.1%), while France (-3.7%), Germany (-0.4%) and Italy (-0.2%) posted declines.

Electric vehicles fell by up to 31.4%
Reports show that in November, electric vehicle registrations fell 9.5% to 130,757 units. This decrease was mainly due to significant declines in registrations in Germany (-21.8%) and France (-24.4%). This has resulted in market sales falling 5.4% year-to-date compared to the same period last year, with total market share now at 13.4%.

Plug-in hybrid car registrations fell by 8.8%, following sharp declines in France (-19.6%), Belgium (-61.4%) and Italy (-31.4%). In November, plug-in hybrids accounted for 7.6% of the car market, down from 8.1% last year. Year-to-date sales are also down, down 8% compared to the same period last year.

Light truck market continues to rise
In November, U.S. light vehicle sales achieved strong year-on-year growth. Sales in that month increased by 12.3% year-on-year to 1.38 million units. Seasonally adjusted annualized sales rose to 16.7 million units/year, setting a new high since May 2021.

Canadian light vehicle sales increased 12% year-on-year to 151,000 units in November, setting a new high for single-month sales in November since 2017.

In November, the seasonally adjusted annualized sales volume of the Western European light vehicle market was 13.9 million units/year, achieving month-on-month growth for the second consecutive month, but it was still relatively weak compared with previous years.

The seasonally adjusted annualized sales volume of the Eastern European light vehicle market in November was 4.7 million units/year, which was little changed from the previous month.

China's domestic market sales increased for the second consecutive month. Seasonally adjusted annual sales in November are expected to reach 28.4 million units/year, the highest level so far this year, but still below the 29-30 million units/year reached in the summer of 2023.

Sales growth in the Japanese market has slowed down, but seasonally adjusted annualized sales in November still reached a solid level of 4.89 million units/year.

Full-year sales in the Korean market this year are expected to hit a new low since 2013. In November, the Brazilian light vehicle market maintained a strong performance, with sales increasing 19.6% year-on-year to 241,000 units.

In November, light vehicle sales in Argentina fell 2% year-on-year to 33,300 units.

Competition in the domestic tire market has become more fierce, and changes in the automobile market have led to intensified competition in the tire market. However, through changes in different automobile markets, tire people can also understand the changes in the tire market segments that will follow, and it will become clearer how the tire business should be laid out.