The Association has released November sales data, due to the gradual improvement of the core shortage problem, the holding of the Guangzhou Auto Show, and the increase in consumer demand for car purchases at the end of the year and other favorable factors, the car market sales in November showed signs of recovery, retail sales reached 1.816 million units, an increase of 6% month-on-month, compared with the November of recent years, an increase of 4% month-on-month, and the retail trend in November this year is slightly improved. Among them, the performance of independent brands is particularly eye-catching, and new energy vehicles have driven a significant increase in achievements. On the contrary, the overall pattern of multinational car companies has changed.
Production and sales have risen, and the signs of recovery in the automobile market are obvious
The cumulative sales of 1.816 million units also led to an increase in cumulative sales in the auto market, with cumulative retail sales reaching 18.041 million units from January to November this year, an increase of 6.1% year-on-year.
Thanks to the continued volume of new cars, the production side of the epidemic has been reduced, production has increased, and car dealers are also increasing their efforts to replenish inventory and prepare for the year-end sales sprint, so it can be seen that domestic passenger car production in November was 2.229 million units, an increase of 13.9% month-on-month; wholesale sales were 2.150 million units, while wholesale sales hit a new high this year, reaching 2.15 million units. This data is already higher than 2.033 million units in 2019 and 2.141 million units in 2018, so the wholesale market has basically returned to the level before the epidemic and the core shortage.
Echoing the increase in wholesale volume of car companies, the inventory warning index of sellers increased, reaching 55.4%, down 5.1 percentage points year-on-year, up 2.9 percentage points month-on-month, and the inventory early warning index was located above the boom-bust line.
In November, production and sales rose, and there were multiple factors, first of all, the epidemic situation in many places gradually stabilized, more consumers were willing to spend in 4S stores, on the other hand, the chip shortage problem was gradually solved, and automobile production gradually returned to the right track. It can be expected that the level of production and sales in December will further increase.
However, whether it is the epidemic or the core shortage problem, the "sequelae" caused by it cannot suddenly disappear, and even a small number of areas have occasional outbreaks of the epidemic, prevention and control upgrades, inhibiting the release of auto market demand, so the overall performance of the automobile market is still in a declining state, and the retail volume of the narrow passenger car market in November fell by 12.7% compared with the same period last year, but the decline was slightly narrower than before.
The decline in the car market is more due to the sluggish demand for entry-level models, the unstable income of consumers, resulting in insufficient consumption capacity and the suppression of car purchase demand. On the other hand, because the chip problem has not been fully resolved, some orders of car companies cannot be released normally, and this situation is expected to gradually improve in December or early 2022.
Independent brands rose sharply against the trend, and sales of joint ventures and luxury car companies continued to decline
In November, the sales volume of the automobile market increased month-on-month, and the wholesale volume increased, and the independent brands had great credit, and the retail sales of independent brand passenger cars reached 830,000 units, an increase of 2% year-on-year, an increase of 8% from October, and the domestic retail share was 46.3 percentage points, an increase of 6.9 percentage points year-on-year.
Mainstream joint venture brands continued to decline in November, with 780,000 new vehicles sold, down 23% year-on-year and only 1% from October. In terms of market share, both Japanese and American brands have declined, of which the retail share of Japanese brands was 22.2%, a year-on-year decrease of 1 percentage point; the retail share of American brands was 9%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.6 percentage points. At present, only the information shows that the market share of French brands has increased, only 0.3 percentage points. The launch of the Versailles C5X has helped to increase the market sales of French cars.
Looking at luxury brands, retail sales were 210,000 units, down 19% year-on-year, but up 17% compared to October. This also means that the demand for luxury cars is still strong, the demand for consumption upgrades is obvious, and the consumption power of luxury car users is very strong, and the epidemic will not affect the confidence of car purchases, and the main reason for the decline in the performance of the luxury car market is the supply of car companies.
In fact, the sales decline of mainstream joint ventures and luxury cars is more because the chip supply has not returned to normal, the epidemic situation abroad is still serious, and the production capacity of overseas car companies is limited. Independent brands have shown stronger tenacity in the face of chip problems, because most chip suppliers are in China, so they can better resolve the pressure of chip shortage, and sales benefit from overtaking.
The strong momentum of independent brands is also reflected in the ranking of car companies, and in the top ten of the batch sales list, five independent brands of Geely Automobile, SAIC Passenger Car, Great Wall Motor, Chery Automobile and BYD are on the list. Among them, the wholesale volume of Chery Automobile, SAIC Passenger Vehicle and BYD Automobile also achieved year-on-year growth, while the joint venture brands were all in a state of decline.
In addition, in the retail volume list, there are also five car companies including Geely Automobile, SAIC-GM-Wuling, BYD Automobile, Changan Automobile and Great Wall Motor, of which Geely Automobile also won the second place. In addition, judging from the sales performance of Geely Automobile and FAW-Volkswagen, the gap between the two is not large. BYD's sales increased the most, up 81.9% year-on-year to 97,000 units.
New energy vehicles are market sales boosters
The rapid rise in sales of independent brands is related to the popularity of new energy vehicles. Nowadays, in order to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, independent and multinational car companies are vigorously promoting new energy vehicles, coupled with the strengthening of consumer environmental protection concepts, the development momentum of new energy vehicle sales in recent years is quite strong, and the trend of traditional fuel vehicles is very different.
In November, new energy vehicle sales, wholesale volumes, and production all hit new highs, reaching 378,000 units, 429,000 units, and 435,000 units, respectively, all of which increased significantly year-on-year and month-on-month. From January to November this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles and wholesale vehicles doubled year-on-year, of which the production volume was 2.822 million units, an increase of 200.7% year-on-year, while the sales volume was 2.514 million units, an increase of 178.3% year-on-year.
Mainstream joint ventures, luxury and independent brands are actively developing new energy vehicles, but as of now, it is still the best performance of the main brand, from the perspective of retail volume, the penetration rate of independent brand new energy vehicles in November far exceeds mainstream joint ventures and luxury brands, reaching 37.4%, which means that every 100 new energy vehicles sold have 37 from independent brands. It was followed by luxury brands at 19.4%. The penetration rate of mainstream joint venture brands is only 3.6%.
The sales of independent brand new energy vehicles are high, BYD's contribution is very large, the arrival of blade batteries and DM-i systems has greatly increased the strength of BYD's pure electric and plug-in hybrid models, and the market performance has soared, helping BYD's sales exceed 90,000 units in November, winning the first place in China's new energy passenger car sales, and has won six consecutive championships so far
In addition, the performance of saic and GAC in the new energy vehicle market is also relatively strong, SAIC Motor in November sales of new energy vehicles reached 82,000 units, GAC Group's performance is 18,000 units. Including BYD, SAIC and GAC, a total of 14 car brands sold more than 10,000 new energy vehicles in November, in addition to Tesla, North and South Volkswagen, the others are independent brands, the overall performance is very good, which is also an important reason for the significant increase in sales of independent brand passenger cars in November.
Multinational car companies do have to work harder to catch up with their own brands, at present, only the performance of the north and south Volkswagen is the best, the ID. family's market heat is very high, has been selling more than 10,000 for 3 consecutive months, and from the strong performance of the north and south Volkswagen can also be seen, the strength of multinational car companies after the successful transformation of electrification can not be underestimated. At present, Japanese brands are also vigorously pushing new energy vehicles, in this case, independent car companies want to laugh in the field of new energy vehicles to the end, master the core technology, enhance competitiveness is very important.
The sales volume of the car market in November increased compared with October, and the new energy vehicles of independent brands are a great credit. The market performance of mainstream joint venture brands and luxury brands is still in a downward state, on the one hand, affected by the shortage of chips, the amount of fuel vehicles can not be mass-produced normally, and the competitiveness of new energy vehicles is not as good as independent models, the pace of technological development of new energy vehicles is very slow, some brands are still focusing on oil to electricity models, in contrast, the newly designed independent new energy vehicles will be more attractive to consumers.
However, independent brands must also have a sense of crisis while welcoming good results, first of all, the chip supply problems of some multinational car companies have gradually improved. Then, Volkswagen, Honda and other mainstream joint venture brands are also working on new energy vehicles, their brand influence has more advantages, after the successful electrification transformation, it is not difficult to surpass their own brands.