On March 8, the Association released the operation of the domestic passenger car market in February, and it was reported that the retail sales of the domestic passenger car market reached 1.246 million units in February, an increase of 4.2% year-on-year and a decrease of 40.0% month-on-month. From January to February, the total retail sales were 3.324 million units, 60,000 units less than in 21 years.
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.
Exports: Passenger car exports (including vehicles and CKDs) under the statistics of the China Passenger Transport Association in February were 133,000 units, up 69% year-on-year and only 21% month-on-month. New energy vehicles accounted for 34% of total exports in February. In February, exports of self-owned brands reached 87,000 units, an increase of 44% year-on-year, and the growth rate slowed down; joint ventures and luxury brands exported 46,000 units, up 153% year-on-year.
Production: Passenger car production in February was stronger than 1.492 million units, up 31.4% y/y and down 27.0% m/m. Among them, the production of luxury brands increased by 15% year-on-year and fell by 27% month-on-month; the production of joint venture brands increased by 31% year-on-year and 22% month-on-month; and the production of independent brands increased by 38% year-on-year and fell by 31% month-on-month.
Wholesale: In February, the wholesale sales of manufacturers were 1.455 million units, an increase of 26.9% year-on-year and a decrease of 32.6% month-on-month. Wholesale sales of manufacturers in January-February reached 3.612 million units, an increase of 13.6% year-on-year, and the cumulative growth rate of 13.6% in January-February was stronger under the comprehensive impact.
In February, the retail penetration rate of domestic new energy passenger cars reached 21.8%, an increase of 13 percentage points over the same period last year. Among them, the penetration rate of new energy passenger cars of Chinese brands is as high as 41.9%, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in luxury cars is 17.4%, while the penetration rate of mainstream foreign brands is only 3.5%.
According to the judgment of the Federation of Passenger Vehicles, the consumption of fuel vehicles may be affected by the rise in oil prices, thus bringing opportunities for the further promotion of new energy and even hybrid vehicles; although new energy vehicles have ushered in a wave of price increases, the Association believes that the price acceptance of new energy vehicles will recover after the Spring Festival, and many new energy vehicles still have a backlog of undelivered orders in the early stage, so the sales of new energy models in March will not be significantly affected by the decline.