As China's new energy vehicle market grows rapidly, there is more optimism about how sales will perform this year.

China is expected to sell more than 3 million new energy vehicles this year, as production and sales continue to be robust in the second half of the year, according to a report released Monday by market research firm GGII.

As we enter the second half of the year, Chinese car companies and research institutions have raised their expectations for full-year sales of new energy vehicles, the report noted.

Among them, CITIC Securities, Chuancai Securities, Wanlian Securities and China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) raised their full-year production and sales targets to 3 million units, and China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) also raised its full-year target from 1.8 million units to 2.4 million units, according to the report.

New models including Dongfeng Voyah FREE, Beijing Benz EQA, Xpeng P5 and BYD Dolphin will be launched in the second half of the year, with product systems covering minivans, A-class cars and B-class and above models, which are expected to drive further growth in market consumption demand, the report said.

Due to the ongoing international Covid-19 epidemic, global chip producers are unable to produce at full capacity, and a shortage of chips for the global automotive industry emerged in the first half of 2021. Automotive companies, including SAIC and Nio, have experienced varying degrees of production shutdowns due to the chip shortage.

Entering the second half of the year, the tight supply of automotive chip capacity has been slowly easing as the vaccination rate has increased, the report said.

In addition, China's local chip suppliers are gradually increasing supply in the second half of the year, and the chip problem is expected to be eased, the report said.

According to the past few years of new energy vehicle sales data, sales in the third and fourth quarters will be significantly higher than in the first and second quarters, from the average of the past four years, the second half of the year sales accounted for an average of more than 65 percent.

A conservative estimate of 60 percent of total annual sales in the second half of 2021 means 1.8 million unit sales in the second half of 2021, with annual sales exceeding 3 million units, the report said.

China's new energy vehicle production reached 284,000 units in July this year, up 1.7 times year-over-year and up 14.3 percent from June, according to data previously released by the CAAM.

Sales in July were 271,000 units, up and 1.6 times year-over-year, up 5.8 percent from June, the CAAM's data showed.

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