The official expects China's vehicle sales to reach 26.1 million units this year, up 3.1 percent year-on-year, and are expected to reach 27.5 million units next year, up 5.4 percent year-on-year.

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Sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) in China are expected to reach 5 million units next year, up 47 percent year-on-year, said Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

Chen made the estimate at the 2022 China Automotive Market Development Forecast Summit today, according to local media cls.cn.

China's vehicle sales are expected to reach 26.1 million units this year, up 3.1 percent year-on-year, and are expected to reach 27.5 million units next year, up 5.4 percent year-on-year, Chen said.

China's passenger car sales are likely to reach 23 million units next year, up 8 percent year-on-year, while commercial vehicle sales are expected to be 4.5 million units next year, down 6 percent year-on-year, according to Chen.

China's NEV sales in November were 450,000, up 121.1 percent from a year earlier and up 17.3 percent from October, data released by the CAAM on Friday showed.

Sales of new energy passenger vehicles in November were 427,000, up 125.9 percent from a year earlier. Among them, pure electric vehicle sales were 339,000 units, up 116.1 percent year-on-year, and plug-in hybrid sales were 88,000 units, up 174 percent year-on-year.

From January to November, China's NEV sales were 2.99 million units, up 166.8 percent year-on-year. Among them, sales of new energy passenger vehicles were 2.837 million units, up 177.6 percent year-on-year.

As an industry association, the forecasts provided by the CAAM seem to have been relatively conservative.

China's NEV sales are expected to be around 6.11 million units in 2022, with global sales nearing 12 million, China Galaxy Securities said in a research note released today.

In a research note sent to investors on Sunday, Deutsche Bank's Edison Yu's team said that NEV sales in China this year could be around 3.2 million units, with BEV (battery electric vehicle) sales likely to be slightly higher than the 2.5 million they previously expected.

Yu's team expects BEV sales in China to reach 5 million units next year, with a penetration rate of more than 40 percent by 2025, equivalent to about 10 million units.

China Galaxy Securities expects local NEV sales to exceed 6 million next year