Order reduction In the new year, the Chongqing automobile market has a strong wait-and-see mood

"Manager, the customer who is ready to book the car is here again, this is the 3rd time, still did not place an order." Luo Yun (pseudonym) is a salesman of a self-owned brand 4S store in the South Bank District, and yesterday faced this customer who "visited the store" many times but refused to fork it, and some "complained".

Luo Yun's encounter was not unique in the New Year car market.

In recent times, affected by chips, raw materials and other factors, the performance of the terminal car market in Chongqing has been flat, and customers have a strong wait-and-see mood.

According to the China Association of Passenger Vehicles, the domestic narrow passenger car market sales reached 1.816 million units in November last year, down 12.7% year-on-year.

Orders from some dealers decreased

"Business is bland!" Tang Jie, sales manager of Baochuang BMW, said that in terms of sales in the past 1 month, sales increased by about 10%. This is in the "core famine" has been alleviated, the promotion efforts have returned to 20,000-30,000 yuan effect.

Zhang Shaomei, sales manager of FAW Toyota, said that compared with last year's New Year, about 20-30 groups of customers came to the store every day, a decline of almost 30%.

"On New Year's Day last year, we booked 10 cars, and this year there are only 4." A salesperson at a Changan automobile dealership in the South Bank District said that the passenger flow declined significantly.

"Although the offers have not decreased, sales have decreased by about 30%." Saic Motor Volkswagen sales leader said.

Tesla, which has always been willful, has "rarely" launched a promotion. Huang Lei, general manager of Tesla China West, introduced that Tesla launched the "Replacement Exclusive 90-day Tesla EAP Free Trial" campaign for consumers who replace existing non-Tesla brand vehicles in Chongqing, and if the replacement purchases Model 3 and Model Y, they can enjoy the lower rates of financial cooperation institutions.

The decline in passenger flow and the decline in orders are not unique to Chongqing.

Caamotia said that in December 2021, the inventory warning index of automobile dealers was 56.1%, down 4.6 percentage points year-on-year and up 0.7 percentage points from the previous month, and the inventory warning index was above the boom-bust line. The prevention and control of the epidemic has been tightened, and consumers have reduced their purchase of cars in stores, which has a certain impact on sales. It is difficult for December to have a tail effect like in previous years. Vehicle sales are expected to be about 25.8 million units in 2021, basically the same as in 2020, and passenger car sales are about 21 million units, compared with 20 million units in 2020, a slight increase of less than 5%.

Multiple factors lead to customer wait-and-see

"The long pick-up cycle has given many customers reasons to continue to choose." The sales staff of Chang'an Automobile Dealership in Nan'an District said that the New Year's Day holiday was only three days, and many customers went to punch in the snow and had no time to watch the car. But more specifically, the delay in picking up the car caused by the chip is serious, and even the exhibition car in the store is currently sold out. In this case, the New Year's Day, which originally had a large number of promotions, also had no offers. Compared with the impulse at the end of previous years and the large number of discounts thrown by dealers, at this moment, consumers feel that it is equivalent to "suffering losses".

A German luxury car related person said that in previous years, many dealers had to empty their hands at the expense of money to complete the manufacturer's task. But now the situation is that some models can not be raised even if customers are willing to increase the price.

"Now, there are indeed more and more consumers who are holding coins and waiting." Zhang Shaomei of FAW Toyota said that at present, in addition to a few high-end popular models, most models in the store can pick up the car in time.

Although the supply of chips has eased, there are still many brands that have postponed the pick-up of cars. BYD's sales staff said that BYD hybrid models are hot on the market, and they are currently selling next year's indicators, so there is no discount. BYD Qin PLUS can pick up the car around February. The sales staff of Xiaopeng Automobile said that due to the impact of chips, some models do have a long waiting period. Taking Xiaopeng P7 as an example, the 670 version has to wait about 1 month, and the 480 version has to wait 4 months.

According to Chongqing Business Daily

Edit | Chen Yu