SHANGHAI – China’s light-vehicle market managed to rebound in 2021 after three straight years of decline, aided in part by a shift that has grown nonstop over the years: an inflow of women that is outpacing that of men among licensed motorists.
An increasing number of carmakers in China, spotting the trend, have launched new products to attract female shoppers, notably in the electric vehicle segment.
The population of motorists in China has grown exponentially since private car ownership started to take off in the mid-1980s.
The ranks of drivers even expanded from 2018 to 2020 while the light-vehicle market contracted.
The number of motorists in China increased 11 percent to 456 million in 2020 from 409 million at the end of 2018, according to data released by the Ministry of Public Security.
Notably, the percentage of female drivers has kept ticking up not only in the most recent three-year period, but ever since the ministry began disclosing the tally of motorists.
As of 2021, the proportion of women motorists in China had reached 34 percent, a rise of 1.25 percentage points from the end of 2020 and a jump of 10 percentage points from the end of 2014.