Per reporter: Pei Jianru Per reporter Per editor: Sun Lei
Under the influence of comprehensive factors such as repeated epidemics and shortage of automotive chip supply, the domestic luxury car market, which has been running wildly before, is also experiencing twists and turns. However, with the gradual easing of chip supply pressure, the domestic luxury car market has gradually warmed up, climbing from less than 200,000 monthly sales at the bottom to crossing the 200,000 mark.
According to the latest data from the Association, in November this year, the retail sales of the domestic luxury car market were about 210,000 units, down 19% year-on-year, up 17% month-on-month, and 4% relative to November 2019. However, from the perspective of overall sales in the first 10 months, domestic luxury car retail sales were about 2.211 million units, maintaining positive growth year-on-year, with a growth rate of 9.0% and a market share of 13.6%, which is still higher than the retail share of 13.1% in 2020.
The Association believes that the domestic luxury car market continues to maintain the characteristics of structural stability, the high-end demand for consumption upgrading is still strong, and the impact of market competition is not large.
Near the end of the year, the luxury car companies are also fighting with all their might, waiting for the "pillow strike". Judging from the data of the first three quarters, in the first camp of domestic luxury cars, the BBA (Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi) has not decreased, and you are still chasing me, and the competition is glued. Among them, BMW temporarily ranked first with a sales performance of about 669,600 vehicles; in the second camp of domestic luxury cars, the Cadillac brand temporarily led with a cumulative performance of 182,000 vehicles in the first three quarters.
It is worth noting that at present, luxury car companies are in the field of "ALL IN" electrification, and the pace of new product launch is also accelerating. This also means that a new round of "electric" competition between luxury car companies has been sounded.
BMW is ahead
According to the data of the Association of Automobile Associations, since June this year, the retail sales of domestic luxury cars have begun to enter a downward channel, and the adverse effects of "lack of core" have begun to appear.
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, believes that the domestic luxury car market has been disturbed by certain external factors this year, and factors such as chip defects have led to domestic luxury car sales not reaching the expected high level, even if the chip improvement has a certain sales increase, but the difficulty of significant improvement is relatively large.
In this context, the Ashkenazi triad has shown resilience. In the first three quarters of this year, BMW sold about 669,600 vehicles in China, an increase of 19.6% year-on-year. Among them, bmw and MINI brand sales in China both increased by nearly 20% year-on-year, and BMW M brand sales increased by nearly 40% year-on-year. Sales in the Chinese market account for nearly 35% of BMW's global sales. BMW said that globally, semiconductor supply difficulties are expected to continue for some time, but BMW is controlling its impact by flexibly adjusting production plans around the world.
Mercedes-Benz's sales in China in the first three quarters of this year also achieved positive growth, with a cumulative delivery of about 592,200 new vehicles to the Chinese market, an increase of 4% year-on-year. However, Mercedes-Benz also said that due to the global shortage of semiconductor parts, the delivery of some vehicles has been delayed, and this situation is expected to continue to affect the market performance in the coming months.
Image source: Per reporter Zhang Jian photographed (data map)
From January to September this year, Audi sold about 560,000 vehicles in China, an increase of 9% year-on-year and a 15% increase compared with the same period in 2019.
In the second camp of domestic luxury cars, the cumulative sales of the Cadillac brand in the first three quarters were about 182,000 units, an increase of 23.2% year-on-year; Lexus sold a total of 181,000 new cars in the Chinese market from January to September, an increase of 12% year-on-year; Volvo sold about 132,000 units in China in the first three quarters, an increase of 14.6% year-on-year.
However, it is worth noting that in the third quarter of this year, the sales of mainstream luxury car companies in the Chinese market have suffered different degrees of decline. According to public data, in October this year, the sales of mainstream luxury car companies in China still maintained a downward trend. Among them, BMW had the smallest decline, at 5.2%, while Lexus had the most significant decline, reaching 59%.
Judging from the achievements accumulated so far, BMW's annual sales crown should be a high probability event, but there is still uncertainty about the specific performance of luxury car companies.
Next Journey: Guild Wars Electrification
It is worth mentioning that with the traditional luxury car companies entering the field of new energy vehicles with an "ALL IN" attitude, the competition between various car companies is also constantly expanding the scope.
According to the data of the Association of Passenger Vehicles, in November this year, the retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles in luxury vehicles was 19.4%, which was a significant increase from the penetration rate of 7.0% in 2020. Cui Dongshu believes that with the promotion of the global wave of new energy vehicles, international car companies are also paying more and more attention to China's new energy vehicle market. Pure electric vehicles of BBA luxury car companies have begun full mass production, but the market performance has yet to be verified.
The latest data from BMW shows that from January to November this year, BMW delivered a total of 42,000 new energy vehicles in the Chinese market, an increase of 65.8% year-on-year. Up to now, BMW has delivered more than 130,000 new energy vehicles in the Chinese market.
Just during this year's Guangzhou Auto Show, BMW pure electric iX was officially listed, bmw's first pure electric four-door coupe i4 also debuted at the domestic auto show, is expected to be officially listed in the first half of 2022. According to the plan, by 2023, the BMW Group plans to launch 12 pure electric models in the Chinese market, covering almost all current market segments. By 2025, at least a quarter of the cars sold by the BMW Group in China will be pure electric vehicles.
Image source: Courtesy of the enterprise
In July this year, Mercedes-Benz also announced the transformation from "electric first" to "full electric". At the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, six models, including the new EQA pure electric SUV and the new EQB pure electric SUV, were officially launched in China. In December this year, The new EQS of Mercedes-Benz is expected to be unveiled in the Chinese market. From 2022 onwards, Mercedes-Benz will also bring 4 pure electric models and at least 6 plug-in hybrid models such as EQE pure electric sedan, EQS pure electric SUV and EQE pure electric SUV.
In August this year, Audi also unveiled a new global strategy , Vorsprung 2030 , focusing on three areas: electric mobility, autonomous driving and digitalization. During this year's Guangzhou Auto Show, "North and South Audi" unveiled both the pure electric models Q4 e-tron and the Q5 e-tron. By 2022, Audi will deploy 10 electrified models in China, of which 4 are domestic models. In 2024, the first electrified model based on the PPE platform will start production.
Zhou Chunlin, an auto analyst at Wanlian Securities, said that overall, international car companies attach great importance to electric vehicles, and it is expected that global electric vehicles are expected to accelerate penetration, and the medium and long-term is still optimistic about the new energy vehicle industry chain.
Daily economic news