As we all know, China's automobile industry started more than half a century later than European and American countries, earlier the mainland was not strong enough in the automotive field, due to backward technology and no brand effect, most of the Chinese people prefer German cars, Japanese cars, domestic cars are not popular. However, after years of development, Chinese car companies have begun to hold up a piece of the sky.
The rise of China's local car companies is inseparable from their "intimate", and local manufacturers understand the needs of domestic users. Recently, foreign media released a report entitled "The Golden Age of German AutoMakers in China Has Ended", which pointed out that while Local Automakers in China are equipping luxury equipment for cars and achieving perfect interconnection, Germans are still promoting rational driving functions and ignoring the basic needs of Chinese customers.
Moreover, in the 2021 China Automobile Industry Economic Operation Data released by the China Automobile Association in January, it can be seen that the market share of German brands has dropped to 20.6% last year, while the market share of Chinese brands has increased to 44.43%, which proves the rise of local car companies.
Domestic brands "up", foreign brands "fall"
The new year has arrived, and we found that in January, domestic brands continued to exert their strength and ushered in a good start. According to the data of the Association, the retail sales of passenger cars in the passenger car market reached 2.092 million units in January 2022, of which 940,000 units were retailed by independent brands, an increase of 11% year-on-year and 1% month-on-month. The domestic retail share of independent brands in January was 45.5%, an increase of 6.4% year-on-year. At the same time, the wholesale market share of independent brands in January was 46.4%, an increase of 4.3% over the same period.
Overall, the head enterprises of independent brands have performed strongly, especially in new energy. These companies have achieved significant increments in the new energy market, such as BYD, Chery and other traditional car brand brands have shown high growth year-on-year. On the other hand, the retail sales of mainstream joint venture brands in January fell year-on-year and month-on-month. Among them, the retail share of Japanese brands, Ashkenazi brands and American markets has declined year-on-year.
We have seen that the rise of the new energy market has become a major reason for the popularity of domestic brands. In terms of new energy, the penetration rate of its own brand new energy vehicles in January was 32.0%, and BYD's pure electric and plug-and-mix dual drives consolidated the leading position of independent brand new energy, with sales reaching 93,101 units. In the new car-making forces, everyone's performance can be remarkable: in January, Xiaopeng, Ideal, Weilai, Nezha, Zero Run, Weima and other new forces car companies sold better than the same period last year and the monthly performance was generally better, of which Xiaopeng, Ideal, Nezha monthly sales exceeded 10,000.
Local car companies are "reliable" and "intimate"
The rise of local brands mainly comes from two aspects, the first is the progress of technology, and the second is that local car companies better understand the needs of users.
In terms of technology, after a period of precipitation, the rising Chinese auto companies through the introduction of mature technology, digestion, absorption and innovation, and constantly break through the bottleneck of common technology development, whether it is parts system or independent research and development capabilities are gradually improved, and the gap with the international advanced level is gradually reduced, and even in the automotive field began to have their own advantages.
On the other hand, local car companies are more aware of the needs of users. It may be due to the fact that the local car companies are more accurate in positioning the car that users want. For example, in terms of appearance design, the aesthetics of Chinese are biased towards atmospheric elegance, and the design concept of local products is also inseparable from this, and the products presented are generally simple and atmospheric, and the lines are bright. Another example is in terms of use, more attention is paid to practicality and comfort, in China vehicles are generally used as a family unit, so local products also attach great importance to "family", to meet the needs of a small and old driver, pay attention to comfort and safety.
In addition, the Chinese people are also paying more and more attention to the "playability" of vehicles, we see that many cars are now equipped with some entertainment equipment, such as projectors, microphones, these devices increase the fun of consumers to ride, rich entertainment equipment is more attractive to consumers.
The product is greener and more diverse
In the past year, the various negative effects of the epidemic are still continuing, and the "chip famine" has swept the world, and both traditional and emerging car companies have been affected.
However, in 2021, the domestic retail sales of new energy vehicles reached 2.99 million units, an increase of 170% year-on-year. Looking forward to 2022, many car companies have set ambitious production and sales improvement targets, and some institutions also predict that the sales of new energy passenger cars will reach about 5.5 million units in 2022, continuing to achieve high growth of about 70%.
In the face of such a large market, presumably local car companies will continue to exert efforts to impact new targets. According to the characteristics of the current industry, local car companies may work hard in the following aspects. The first aspect is to promote the electrification transformation of enterprises, at present, the national policy supports new energy vehicles is huge, the scale benefits of new energy vehicles are obvious, and under the further penetration of new energy culture, green new energy vehicles will be more popular with consumers.
The second aspect, for the huge market, but also to analyze the consumer population in the market. The survey shows that new energy users are younger; female drivers are growing relatively fast, especially in the past two years, the growth rate of female drivers is relatively rapid, and now it has reached 160 million; from the perspective of driver age, nearly 70 million drivers aged 51 to 60 at the end of 2021, accounting for 14.48%, an increase of 50% over 2018, and the increase in China's middle-aged and elderly car purchases in the future will become a force that cannot be ignored in the car market. In this regard, in the face of these consumers, the corresponding products are also very important, such as high-end electric vehicles that young people like, and micro-electric vehicles preferred by female users.
Write at the end
In 2021, we see that China's auto market continues to expand, and local brands are gradually gaining a foothold. Veteran and new power car companies are enhancing their own strength and occupying more market share, and some "players" not only firmly grasp the domestic market, but also go abroad and march overseas. In the future, with the help of technological development, policy support and the heating up of brand benefits, we have reason to believe that local enterprises will show their skills in the domestic market.