In 2026, my country’s automotive aluminum alloy wheel industry is ushering in multi-dimensional dividend resonance and its potential continues to be released.
Car wheels are rotating parts that connect tires and axles and carry the load of the entire vehicle. They are also important core safety accessories for cars.
Its quality and performance directly affect the vehicle’s driving safety and driving experience.
Automobile aluminum alloy wheels use aluminum alloy as the main raw material and are composed of hubs, rims, spokes and other structures.
Its market demand mainly comes from the pre-installation market for new car accessories and the after-sales market for repair and replacement of existing vehicles.
In the field of front-end equipment, the domestic automobile industry is developing well.
In 2025, my country’s automobile production and sales volume will reach 34.531 million units and 34.4 million units, with both production and sales exceeding 34 million units, ranking first in global automobile production and sales for 17 consecutive years.
From January to April 2026, automobile production and sales completed 9.614 million units and 9.574 million units respectively, injecting growth momentum into the pre-installation market.
In the field of after-sales replacement, the huge domestic car ownership has opened up medium and long-term growth space for the industry.
By the end of 2025, the number of civilian vehicles nationwide will reach 366.11 million, a year-on-year increase of 3.68%.
As vehicles enter the maintenance and replacement cycle, as well as factors such as daily damage, wear and aging, the demand for aluminum alloy wheel replacement continues to increase.
Under the “dual carbon” goal, aluminum alloy wheels have become the mainstream choice to achieve energy saving, emission reduction and performance upgrade of automobiles.
Although steel wheels have the advantage of high strength, they are too heavy and have a single appearance, making it difficult to adapt to the trend of low carbonization and personalization.
Aluminum alloy wheels are lightweight, beautiful in appearance, fuel-saving and energy-saving, have excellent heat dissipation performance, are corrosion-resistant and easy to process. Their market penetration continues to increase and they are gradually replacing traditional steel wheels.
Forged aluminum alloy wheels have more prominent advantages and can improve the overall driving performance of the vehicle.
In the context of the “dual carbon” policy and the tightening of environmental protection and safety regulations, automobile lightweighting has become the development direction. As a key component of lightweighting, aluminum alloy wheels will continue to grow in market demand.
New energy vehicles have rapidly penetrated and become the core growth engine of aluminum alloy wheels.
Lightweighting is the core breakthrough for new energy vehicles to reduce energy consumption, increase battery life, and control costs. Aluminum alloy wheels have become the core preferred accessory for new energy vehicle companies to achieve vehicle weight reduction.
my country’s new energy vehicle industry is booming, with output reaching 16.626 million vehicles in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 29%; sales reaching 16.49 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 28.2%, accounting for 50.8% of that year’s car sales.
From January to April 2026, production and sales were completed at 4.285 million vehicles and 4.304 million vehicles respectively.
New energy vehicles have higher requirements for body weight, heat dissipation performance and driving stability. Aluminum alloy wheels have obvious advantages. The adoption rate in the field of new energy vehicles continues to rise. It will exceed 85% in 2025, which is nearly 30 percentage points higher than traditional fuel vehicles. The surge in market demand will drive a substantial increase in the production capacity and shipments of the aluminum alloy wheel industry.
The overall scale of my country’s automotive aluminum alloy wheel manufacturing industry is on an upward trend.
From 2019 to 2023, the domestic aluminum alloy wheel market size increased from 66.5 billion yuan to 74.2 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 2.8%; output climbed from 175.86 million pieces to 196.41 million pieces, with a compound annual growth rate of 2.81%.
It is expected that by 2028, the market size will expand to 90.1 billion yuan, and the output will increase to 238.45 million pieces.
From the perspective of segmentation, the passenger car field is the largest application market for aluminum alloy wheels.
In 2023, my country’s passenger car aluminum alloy wheel production will reach 104.48 million pieces, accounting for 53.2% of the total production.
In 2025, my country’s passenger car production and sales will account for 89% and 88.5% of the overall car production and sales respectively. The huge market base provides support for the demand for passenger car aluminum alloy wheels.
The domestic automotive aluminum alloy wheel industry has a low concentration level, and market participants can be divided into three major echelons.
The first echelon is composed of listed companies and leading professional wheel manufacturers, such as CITIC Dicastal, Wanfeng Aowei, etc., which occupy the core position in the domestic vehicle accessories market and export their products to mainstream global markets.
The second echelon is dominated by medium-sized and specialty small wheel manufacturers, such as Yueling Co., Ltd., Jinfei Kaida, Lizhong Group, etc. Their business is concentrated in the low-end vehicle accessories market and the automotive after-sales market, and they have a certain share in the overseas after-sales market.
The third echelon consists of smaller manufacturing companies, such as Hongxin Technology, with weak risk resistance and limited market competitiveness.
