Global passenger car sales decline by $440bn in 2020, trend to continue in 2021

By Zainab Iwayemi

Global passenger car sale is expected to witness a fall by $440 billion in 2020 and continue into next year with revenues falling by 10 percent year-on-year in 2021 due to the Coronavirus outbreak which has hit the automotive industry hard, causing supply chain disruptions, factory closures, and huge sales and revenue drops, a report by Stock Apps has revealed.

Statista had revealed that in 2016 revenue of the global car sale, including passenger cars, sports cars, SUVs, and MPVs, reached $2.26 trillion.

However, in the next twelve months, the figure slightly increased to $2.27 trillion. Consequently, the following years saw a downward shift in global demand.

Based on statistics, the 2019 global passenger car sales revenue reached $2.29 trillion; small SUVs sales had the highest revenue stream as it incurred close to 30 per cent, which amounted to $647 billion while large SUVs and large cars segments recorded $362 billion and $275 billion in revenue, respectively.

The Coronavirus pandemic, however, caused a major hit causing total car sales revenue to fall by almost 20 per cent year-over-year to $1.85 trillion in 2020. Similarly, Revenues in the large cars segment are expected to drop by 25 percent year on year to $233 billion while large SUV sales are set to fall by a 24 percent cut this year, with revenues plunging to $275 billion in 2020. Small SUVs follow with a 20 per cent drop and $525 billion in revenue, Statista data revealed.

Further analysis shows that in 2020, Toyota tops with a 10.6 per cent market share while Volkswagen ranked second with a 7.4 per cent market share and Nissan, Ford, and Hyundai follow with a 6.6 per cent, 6.2 per cent, and 5.6 per cent share, respectively. The decline is predicted to continue and break into the year 2021 with global passenger car sales revenues falling to $1.65 trillion and further decrease by another six per cent to $1.55 trillion in 2022.

In a similar occurrence, data by Statista revealed that all of the leading car markets are expected to witness a two-digit revenue fall in 2020 as the United States, China and Japan, as the world three leading markets lost  $231.5 billion in car sales revenues the same year due to the COVID-19 crisis.