In February, domestic vehicle production totaled 1.813 million units and 1.737 million units, up 20.6% y/y and 18.7% y/y. Chen Shihua said that automobile production and sales continued to grow year-on-year, on the one hand, the positive role played by new energy and automobile exports; On the other hand, the demand for inventory replenishment has driven growth.
In the first two months, plug-in hybrid vehicle production reached 168,000 units and 160,000 units, respectively, up 2.8 times and 2.5 times year-on-year. Chen Shihua said that with the gradual decline of new energy subsidies and the rise in raw material costs of pure electric vehicle models, the cost advantages of plug-in hybrid models have been reflected; In addition, the hybrid model solves the problem of mileage anxiety very well. Xu Haidong also believes that in the next ten years, the hybrid market will have a lot of room for growth.
In the shadow of the global epidemic, even the domestic automobile market with a complete industrial chain is difficult to be alone. The chip shortage that lasted for two years is still the "heartache" of major OEMs, before some manufacturers frantically increased prices to grab chips, and then some manufacturers were forced to stop and reduce production. Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Automobile Association, said, "According to the survey, the current chip shortage has not been significantly alleviated compared with the fourth quarter of last year. ”
Despite this, the auto market delivered a satisfactory answer in February. On Friday (March 11), the China Automobile Association released data showing that in February, domestic automobile production and sales reached 1.813 million units and 1.737 million units, down 25.2% and 31.4% respectively month-on-month, and up 20.6% and 18.7% year-on-year, respectively.
Chen Shihua said that automobile production and sales continued to grow year-on-year, on the one hand, the positive role played by new energy and automobile exports; On the other hand, the demand for inventory replenishment has driven growth. However, due to the impact of the Spring Festival holiday factors, there was a sharp decline in the chain.
In the first two months of this year, production and sales of automobiles totaled 4.235 million units, up 8.8% y/y, and sales totaled 4.268 million units, up 8.8% and 7.5% year-on-year, respectively. The China Automobile Association said that in the first two months, the production and sales of the automotive industry remained stable overall, continuing to maintain growth year-on-year, and showing a 10% increase over the same period in 2019.
Specifically, production and sales of passenger cars in February totaled 1.534 million units and 1.487 million units, down 26.1% and 32.0% month-on-month, respectively, and up 32.0% and 27.8% year-on-year, respectively. From January to February, production and sales of passenger cars totaled 3.612 million units, up 17.6% y/y, and sales totaled 3.674 million units, up 14.4% y/y.
Among the four major categories of passenger cars, the production and sales of cars increased by 15.8% and 12.8% respectively year-on-year; SUV production and sales increased by 20.7% and 16.4% year-on-year, respectively; MPV production decreased by 4.9% year-on-year, and sales volume increased by 3.8% year-on-year; Production and sales of cross-sectional passenger cars increased by 39.5% and 35.2% year-on-year, respectively. Chen Shihua pointed out that the substantial increase in cross-type passenger cars year-on-year has a certain relationship with the development of urban logistics.
In addition, high-end brand passenger cars performed well, with a total of 268,000 units sold in February, up 31.6% year-on-year, an increase of 20.5 percentage points from January. From January to February, the sales volume of high-end brand passenger cars produced in China reached 656,000 units, an increase of 20.0% year-on-year, which was 5.6 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of passenger cars.
By country, Chinese brand passenger cars sold a total of 634,000 vehicles in February, an increase of 27.9% year-on-year, accounting for 42.6% of total passenger car sales, basically the same as the same period last year. In contrast, in the German and Japanese systems, the market share declined in the first two months, accounting for 21.2% and 21.1% respectively.
"The decline in the market share of Germany and Japan is mainly related to the increase in the share of new forces in the new energy market." Xu Haidong believes that at present, new energy is an incremental market, Chinese brands occupy the mainstream position, and German and Japanese are relatively weak, so they have been seized a certain market share. In addition, the competitiveness of independent brands in the A-class car market has increased, and they have gradually been recognized by consumers.
Chen Shihua said that the overall scale of the German and Japanese systems in the Chinese market is larger, "the ship is difficult to turn around, the two in the process of transformation to new energy, although also launched some good products, but the absolute amount is too large, it is difficult to convert at once, how the future performance is still worth paying attention to." ”
In contrast, U.S. brands have taken a different path, with their market share increasing and their sales structure continuously optimized. For example, the popular model CT5 of Cadillac's car family, the sales volume of medium and high-end models, accounted for more than 90%, which was widely recognized by consumers; At the same time, with the recovery and stability of ATP transaction prices, the overall price system is healthier.
From January to February, the sales volume of the top ten group companies in automobile sales totaled 3.670 million units, an increase of 6.0% year-on-year, accounting for 86.0% of total automobile sales, 1.2 percentage points lower than the same period last year. Chen Shihua analysis believes that in the past two years, with the gradual increase in sales of new car-making forces, it has a certain impact on the market share of the top ten traditional car companies, but the overall market pattern has not changed.
As a "brother" in domestic automobile sales, SAIC Motor's sales in the first two months reached 758,000 units, an increase of 19.37% year-on-year, of which SAIC-GM achieved a double harvest of sales and brand. It is reported that SAIC-GM has gradually shifted from the previous low-end products to high-end products, and the current starting price of Buick Encore S, Oncovey PLUS, etc. is more than 200,000 yuan, which is undoubtedly conducive to enhancing brand reputation.
It is worth noting that new energy vehicles still maintain rapid development, with production and sales of 368,000 units and 334,000 units in February, up 2.0 times and 1.8 times year-on-year, respectively; From January to February, production and sales totaled 820,000 units and 765,000 units, up 1.6 times and 1.5 times year-on-year, respectively, with a market share of 17.9%.
Among them, in the first two months, the growth rate of plug-in hybrid vehicles was significantly higher than that of pure electric vehicles, with production and sales of 168,000 units and 160,000 units respectively, an increase of 2.8 times and 2.5 times year-on-year, respectively. Xu Haidong said that this is inseparable from the rapid growth of new energy vehicles, and some car companies have done a lot of work in expanding the market and guiding consumers, and launched products that meet consumer needs.
Xu Haidong expects that "in the next decade, the hybrid market will have a lot of room for growth to make up for the lack of range anxiety, charging convenience, and winter endurance decline." ”
"Plug-in hybrids are a transitional product between fuel and pure electric models, which is an ideal solution in the short term, but it has not performed well in the domestic market before." Chen Shihua also said that with the gradual decline of new energy subsidies and the rise in the cost of raw materials for pure electric vehicle models, the cost advantages of hybrid models have been reflected. In addition, some car owners still have certain concerns about long-distance travel of pure electric vehicles, and hybrid models solve this problem very well.
Talking about the future development trend of the automotive industry, Chen Shihua believes that with a series of larger tax and fee reductions, policies to help enterprises solve difficulties continue to land, coupled with the start of large-scale infrastructure projects in various places since the first quarter, it will play an obvious role in promoting economic growth. At the same time, auto companies are also accelerating the pace of new product listings, and it is expected that the auto market is expected to show a steady growth trend in the first quarter.
However, it should also be noted that due to the current international situation, the external environment of the industry is more complicated. In addition, factors such as chip shortage and rising raw material costs still have an impact on the production and operation of enterprises, and the task of ensuring supply and price stability is very arduous. Chen Shihua said, "We remain cautiously optimistic about the future development of the industry, and also recommend that enterprises pay attention to changes in the internal and external situation in a timely manner, actively plan, and continuously improve their ability to cultivate opportunities in the crisis and open a new situation in the change." (China Economic Network reporter Jiang Zhiwen)