In 2022, the car market worldwide will face better times. That is what the analysts of LMC Automotive predict against Automotive News. According to LMC estimates, the passenger car market will grow by 6 percent worldwide next year. Also, the impact of the chip shortage on production will most likely decrease during the year.
LMC expects car sales in Europe to rise by 7 percent to 17.8 million cars. In that number, LMC also includes European countries from outside the European Union. In South America, the analysts expect the strongest increase in percentage at 9 percent. With a total size of 3.6 million cars, that market remains quite small. China will remain the largest market in 2022, according to LMC, passenger car sales there will grow by 5 percent next year to 26.6 million units. Globally, the size of the car market in LMC’s forecasts will increase by 6 percent to 85 million cars.
LMC argues that it is still a struggle for car manufacturers to be able to meet the demand. The chip shortage continues to play a role, particularly in the first three quarters. Compared to production before the pandemic in 2019, the first quarter of 2022 will be a minus of 12 percent. In the second quarter, that deficit will already decrease to 5 percent and in the third quarter production should be even with 2019. In the last quarter of this year, there should be an increase of 4 percent compared to 2019.
If the forecast comes true, total production in 2022 will be 84.9 million cars. According to LMC, the loss in production numbers due to the chip shortage is still 4.9 million cars. Production is not expected to return to 2019 levels until 2023, when 88.7 million cars rolled off the production line.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl