Last year, Dongfeng Motor sold a total of 3,275,300 units, down 5.28% year-on-year from 3.458 million units in 2020. Recently, Dongfeng Motor announced its sales in January this year, selling 341,700 units in January, an increase of 6.1% year-on-year, achieving a good start to the New Year. There are many highlights, including Dongfeng Fengshen's record monthly sales, dongfeng Dongfeng Dongfeng Automobile's sales of more than 13,000 units in the first month of the New Year after four years. So, what about the specific situation? Let's take a look.
Passenger car segment increased 13.8% year-on-year
In the passenger car segment, Dongfeng Motor performed remarkably, with sales reaching 291,400 units, up 13.8% year-on-year.
Specific to the brand, Dongfeng Nissan Venucia sold 14,000 vehicles in January, an increase of 126.3% year-on-year; Dongfeng Nissan sold 112,100 vehicles in January, a slight decline year-on-year; Dongfeng Honda sold 77,400 units in January, an increase of 7.3% year-on-year; Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile sold 13,000 units in January, an increase of 85% year-on-year, which is the first month of the new year after four years of DPCA sales of 13,000 units.
In addition, Dongfeng Infiniti sold 0.11 million vehicles in January, an increase of 446.1% year-on-year; Dongfeng Fengxing sold 17,000 vehicles in January, an increase of 48.3% year-on-year; Dongfeng Fengshen sold 18,600 vehicles in January, an increase of 189.1% year-on-year, creating a record single-month sales record, mainly because its Yixuan family played well in January and exceeded 10,000 results.
Obviously, Dongfeng's joint venture brands accounted for a higher proportion of passenger car sales in January. However, from the overall point of view, the sales of passenger cars of the joint venture brand in January were 217,300 units, a slight increase of 0.9% year-on-year, and the sales of passenger cars of its own brands contributed 74,100 units, but it increased by 82% year-on-year, which means that the growth rate of Dongfeng Motor's own brands is better than that of its joint venture brands.
The commercial vehicle segment sold 50,300 units
Let's look at Dongfeng Motor's commercial vehicle segment. According to the data, Dongfeng Motor's commercial vehicle field sold 50,300 units in January. Among them, Dongfeng commercial vehicles sold 13,200 units; Dongfeng light vehicles sold 17,200 units, an increase of 3.5% year-on-year; Chenglong sold 0.45 million units; Zhengzhou Nissan sold 0.36 million units; and Dongfeng Huashen sold 0.18 million units.
Although commercial vehicles are not as large as passenger cars, the importance of the commercial vehicle sector cannot be ignored for Dongfeng Motor. It should be known that the sales volume of Dongfeng Motor's commercial vehicle sector last year was close to 700,000. It is conceivable how much the commercial vehicle sector plays a role.
By 2025, we will complete 3 "one million" goals
From the perspective of strategic layout, Dongfeng promoted the "Oriental Wind Rise" plan last year and built a "one main and two wings" business pattern. In addition, Dongfeng has also set three "one million" targets – by 2025, sales of commercial vehicles, autonomous passenger cars and new energy vehicles will reach 1 million units each.
From the perspective of sales volume, these three major sectors are also dongfeng's weaker sectors at present. Last year, for example, only 542,000 private-brand passenger cars were sold, compared with 700,000 commercial vehicles. Obviously, these major sectors are actually still far from the sales target of 1 million. There are only about 3 years left, and how to grow rapidly in sales is worth thinking about.
In fact, the reason why Dongfeng Motor fell by 5.28% last year is largely due to the joint venture brand and commercial vehicle sector, because from the overall point of view, the sales of Dongfeng Motor's own brands increased year-on-year last year, while the sales of joint venture brands decreased by about 100,000. Even since January this year, although the sales volume of Dongfeng's joint venture brands in January has not declined, it has only increased slightly by 0.9% year-on-year.
In contrast, its own brands, the growth rate is basically tens, or even hundreds. Therefore, the key to Dongfeng lies in whether the joint venture brand and commercial vehicles can grow steadily. In addition, from the perspective of product matrix, Dongfeng's current performance in new energy is also weak, and it is not so easy to complete the sales of 1 million vehicles in the remaining 3 years. Then, what kind of measures or methods will Dongfeng adopt next, which is what we are worth looking forward to.
Automotive network review: the development of new energy or the key
Leaving aside Dongfeng's 3 "one million" goals, talking about the development of this year alone, it is also reasonable to find ways to ensure and increase the sales of joint venture brands. From last year's sales point of view, it is obvious that the decline in sales of its joint venture brands and commercial vehicles has dragged Dongfeng's hind legs, and this year's new car start, its own brands still show a rapid growth side, so if dongfeng's joint venture brands perform well this year, I believe that sales will not be bad.
However, in order to achieve the three "one million" goals in the next three years, for the current Dongfeng, the challenge point is in the field of new energy. In fact, independent brands are more likely to break through innovation in the field of new energy than joint venture brands, such as Lantu Automobile. And the joint venture brand to create changes, there are too many things to involve, involving the whole body, it is not easy to start. It can be said that the development of Dongfeng's own brands in the field of new energy may be the key growth point of Dongfeng.