Passenger car sales volume APAC 2021, by country

In 2021, over 21 million passenger cars were sold in China, making it the largest market in the Asia-Pacific region. Japan was the second biggest market in the region, with over 3.6 million unit sales in 2021.

The biggest markets

China is by far the largest passenger car market in the world. Over half of the Asia-Pacific region’s and over a third of the world’s passenger car sales were attributed to China. Asia-Pacific includes other big markets such as Japan, India, and South Korea that sold over a million passenger cars in 2020. Despite the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, Asia-Pacific saw the lowest decreases in the sales of passenger cars compared to other regions.

Consumer preferences

The sales of electric vehicles (EV) have been gradually increasing year after year. The biggest EV market in the Asia-Pacific region, China, sold nearly a million battery-electric passenger cars, but the EV market in Asia-Pacific remains rather minuscule as most consumers still prefer gas or diesel engines over electric engines. As for classifications, sport utility vehicles (SUV) seem to be a favorite among Chinese consumers, being the only car model that had sales growth in China despite the overall decrease.