According to the latest retail sales statistics of the Automobile Market Research Branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association (ACFTU), the retail sales of the passenger car market in February 2022 reached 1.246 million units, down 4.2% year-on-year and 40.0% month-on-month, and the cumulative retail sales from January to February were 3.324 million units.
According to the analysis, since the Spring Festival holiday starts from January 31, but the pre-holiday production line and consumer car purchase will be a few days earlier, resulting in a large loss of production and sales in January. After the Spring Festival this year, some enterprises started work earlier, and the production in February was less lost due to the Spring Festival factor, which drove the retail sales in February after the month-on-month and year-on-year performance were converted into good growth.
In February, 540,000 self-owned brand retail units were sold, up 14% year-on-year and down 42% month-on-month. The domestic retail share of independent brands in February was 44%, an increase of 4.3 percentage points year-on-year, and the cumulative share of January-February was 44%, an increase of 4.7 percentage points compared with the same period in 2021. The wholesale market share of independent brands in February was 43.4%, an increase of 1.1 percentage points over the same period, and the cumulative share of independent brands in January and February was 45%, an increase of 2.8 percentage points compared with the same period in 2021. The performance of independent brand head enterprises is differentiated, and the independent new energy market has obtained a significant increase, so byddier and other traditional car brand brands have shown high growth year-on-year.
Mainstream joint venture brand retail sales of 550,000 units in February, down 1% year-on-year and 36% month-on-month. In February, the retail share of Japanese brands was 23.1%, an increase of 1.6 percentage points year-on-year. The share of Ashkenazi brands was 20.5%, down 4 percentage points year-on-year. The retail share of the US market reached 9.1%, down 0.6 percentage points year-on-year. The Share of Europeans increased by 0.1 percentage points.
Wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 317,000 units in February, up 189.1% year-on-year and down 24.1% month-on-month, less than in previous years. Retail sales of new energy passenger cars reached 272,000 units in February, up 180.5% year-on-year and down 22.6% month-on-month, which was smaller than the trend in February of the calendar year.
The domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles in February was 21.8%, an increase of 13 percentage points from the penetration rate of 8.1% in February 2021. In February, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in independent brands was 41.9%, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in luxury vehicles was 17.4%, while the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in mainstream joint venture brands was only 3.5%.