With the continuous increase in the number of automobiles and the increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles, the scale of the automotive supplies market continues to expand. According to the Ministry of Public Security, by the end of June 2024, the number of cars in the country reached 345 million. The demand of many car owners for automotive supplies provides a solid consumption foundation for the market. For example, in 2023, the sales scale of compressor car refrigerators in China will reach 4.15 million units, and the annual growth rate of car rice cooker sales on the Tmall platform will reach 1400% in 2024.
According to the "2024 China Automotive Aftermarket Annual Development Report Analysis", with the development of electrification and intelligent trends, the automotive supplies market not only covers traditional decorations, but also expands to various intelligent automotive products. In this context, the scope of on-board supplies continues to expand, and many new categories have emerged:
On the one hand, due to the changes in the structure and function of automobiles, a series of new categories of automotive products have emerged, including but not limited to charging equipment, charging piles, underbody protective panels, and protective covers for automotive cameras.
On the other hand, with the diversification of automotive usage scenarios, many innovative products have also appeared in the market, such as car vacuum cleaners, car cooktops, car microphones, car AR glasses, and charging and discharging machines. These new automotive products not only enrich consumers' choices, but also reflect the pursuit of convenience, entertainment and practicality by modern car owners.
Decorative
The owner's pursuit of vehicle personalization and aesthetics has made aromatherapy car hangers, body stickers, dolls, parasols and other products very popular. Young car owners such as the post-95s generation like to decorate the interior space with IP elements such as Disney to create a unique atmosphere. The improvement of cabin comfort and quality requirements is a key driver for the growth of the automotive accessories market. Taking car fragrance as an example, according to the estimation of Xianluo Investment Consulting, from 2018 to 2022, the global demand for automotive fragrance devices will surge from 1.4046 million to 4.5656 million, with a maximum growth rate of 75.68%. Although the growth rate slowed down significantly to 7.27% in 2020-2021 due to the impact of the special economic period, it still maintained a growth trend. In the future, ordinary car aromatherapy will develop in the direction of intelligence, which can not only control the switch, but also adjust the fragrance concentration, mode, and working interval through a variety of intelligent ways, providing rich fragrance notes and personalized settings. With the further improvement of people's requirements for comfort and quality in the in-vehicle environment, the market for automotive aromatherapy products is expected to continue to expand.
Figure: 2018-2022 Global Demand for Automotive Aromatherapy Devices (Unit: 10,000 units)
Automotive appliances
With the acceleration of the process of automobile electrification, networking and intelligence, the scale of the automotive electrical appliance market continues to grow. In 2022, the size of China's automotive electronics market reached 978.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12%, about 1.1 trillion yuan in 2023, and further increased to 1.16 trillion yuan in 2024. Taking car audio as an example, from 2019 to 2023, the scale of China's car audio pre-installation market will increase from 139.494 million to 189.3647 million in terms of quantity, and the amount will increase from 51.538 billion yuan in 2019 to 60.188 billion yuan in 2023, and the scale of the aftermarket is also steadily increasing.
Figure: Sales performance of vehicle electrical appliances sub-category on Amoy e-commerce platforms in 2022
From the perspective of sub-categories, car washes, emergency power supplies and on-board small household appliances have become the three most popular categories in the market. Specifically:
Scale of sales amount: In the on-board electrical appliance market in 2022, the performance of car washing machines is particularly prominent, and the sales volume is far ahead of other categories. At the same time, the emergency starting power supply and pure energy power supply also showed strong market performance, and the sales were significant.
Growth rate: Most sub-categories saw positive growth in 2022, with the fastest growing rates being in-car steam cleaners and in-car shavers. These two categories are growing much faster than the others, demonstrating the increasing consumer demand for convenience and interior cleaning.
Consumers have higher and higher requirements for the intelligence, comfort and safety of automobiles, and the demand for automotive electrical products has also shifted from simple practicality to the pursuit of personalization, intelligence and high-end, providing impetus for market development. In the future, automotive electrical products will continue to integrate new technologies, such as the progress of autonomous driving technology, which will drive the development of intelligent driving assistance systems and other related automotive electrical products; In-vehicle entertainment systems that combine AR and VR are also expected to become a new growth point.
