Introduction: Affected by objective factors such as the Spring Festival, SUV sales in February were in a downward trend from the previous month, and the sudden change in the ranking of the list made the market trend show a different scene in the past. One of the most representative variables is that the Haval H6 has fallen to no. 2 on the SUV list.
(Text/Zhang Jiadong Editor/Lou Bing) Due to the impact of objective factors such as the Spring Festival every February, a sharp month-on-month decline in sales has almost become the norm in the automobile market. However, from the overall trend point of view, after the rapid rebound of the car market in early 2021, the SUV market this year still maintained a relatively high growth rate for two consecutive months, showing the market potential of the domestic car market driven by new energy.
According to the information released by the Association of Passenger Vehicles, the cumulative wholesale sales of domestic passenger cars in February were 1.455 million units, an increase of 26.9% year-on-year, of which SUV sales totaled 720,000 units, an increase of 27.3% year-on-year, surpassing the year-on-year growth rate of the market.
In terms of products, the popularity of the SUV market depends to a certain extent on the car companies to continue to pay attention to the market, in the past year, the car market has added a total of 32 fuel SUV products, although most of the models in the market due to the lack of word-of-mouth accumulation and failed to achieve a breakthrough, but such as Wuling Star, Geely Star Yue L, Corolla Ruifang and other products have gradually found the right positioning in the market, and achieved a rapid increase in sales.
On the other hand, due to the promotion of new energy technology, the market environment for traditional fuel SUV has begun to undergo a comprehensive transformation since last year. In the face of the strong entry of pure electric products for the high-end market and the entry-level market in recent years, the dominant space of fuel SUVs in the market has been increasingly compressed to the market range of 100,000-300,000 yuan. Last year, the sudden rise of hybrid technology products led by BYD further reduced the market share of independent brands of 100,000-150,000 yuan, and the addition of new energy products made the market's comprehensive demand for products rise again, and the consumption upgrade trend of the traditional SUV market gradually emerged.
From the perspective of market performance, the leading position of independent brands in the SUV market has faded rapidly. In the top 10 SUV sales in February, only three self-owned brand models were on the list. At the same time, among the 20 SUV products with sales of more than 10,000, in addition to the two joint venture products of Audi Q5 and Honda Binzhi, the remaining 5 declining products are independent brand models, and the decline is nearly 25%. In contrast, joint venture brand products that should continue to suffer from lack of cores are accelerating out of production capacity and boosting sales.
In the country-specific subdivision types released by the Association, the sales trend of autonomous and joint venture SUVs is also clearly reflected. In February this year, the Japanese SUV, which has been plagued by the lack of core problems for nearly half a year, suddenly made a force, selling a total of 123,000 units, an increase of 14.4%; the US SUV continued the good trend since last year, selling 46,000 units, an increase of 29.4%; the German SUV is still trapped in chip supply, following a slight improvement in January, February sold 101,000 units fell by 7.1% year-on-year, but the value has narrowed sharply compared with the second half of last year, showing the signs that the joint venture car company has come out of the market haze. The market growth rate of autonomous SUVs, which rose sharply in market share last year, slowed down significantly, with a total of 300,000 autonomous SUVs sold in February, an increase of 4.2% year-on-year.
Small SUVs: Severe faults
Overall, the market share of small SUVs has narrowed further, with a total of 77,000 units sold in February, and the market share fell to 6.1%.
Similar to the small car market, the small SUV market is also increasingly lacking competitive advantage in the market, and the continuous improvement of consumer demand makes it difficult for small SUVs to compete with compact products at the cost-effective level, and the "hard injury" brought by space is doomed to the decline of small SUVs under the trend of consumption upgrading.
In February, in addition to the sales of honda XR-V, Geely Binyue, and Honda Binzhi, which exceeded 10,000, and mg ZS returned to the 9,000-vehicle mark, starting from the fifth-place Tujiao, it was difficult to sell small SUVs with more than 5,000 units. It shows that the segment has a serious fault line, and at present, the top four models have gradually formed a brand effect in the market and have performed stably at the sales level.
It is worth noting that the North and South Volkswagen's Tujiao and Tanying rose rapidly in February, and if Volkswagen can get out of the chip crisis in the future, perhaps its small SUV products are expected to join the first-line team competition.
Compact SUV: Autonomous abdication is the main reason for the decline
At the beginning of 2022, the compact segment with the highest market share of SUVs showed signs of contraction. In February, the compact SUV market sold a total of 340,000 units, down 10.2% year-on-year, and the market share reached 27%. Among them, the overall stall of independent brands has become the main reason for the decline of the market at this level.
If you compare last year's SUV sales ranking with February this year, the SUV market can be described as a sudden change. Although from the car market in 2018 to the insurance period, the independent SUV no longer showed signs of the former hegemony, but since 2020, the successive rise of Geely Boyue and Changan CS75 PLUS has made the Haval H6, which leads the market alone, no longer lonely. The dominance of its own brands in compact SUVs has never been shaken by the rebound of joint venture car companies in SUV models.
However, since April 2021, the Haval H6 has rarely given up its top spot from the SUV sales list, and it seems that this model, which has maintained an absolute leading position in the Chinese SUV market for many years, has shown signs of being pulled off the altar with the changes in market consumption. After losing two months of ranking second on the SUV list last year, in February 2022, the Haval H6 once again relinquished the top spot on the SUV list and slipped to second place.
This time, havra down the altar is not the "dark horse" Changan CS75 PLUS, nor the old rival Boyue, but with the rapid movement of hybrid models BYD Song, by February BYD Song wholesale sales totaled 24534 vehicles, an increase of 295.9% year-on-year, it is worth noting that the Song fuel version of the model sold only 1778 vehicles, down 70.5% year-on-year. This means that BYD's electrification transformation not only completely replaces its own products, but also poses a great threat to independent competitors at the same level.
In this environment, in February, haval H6 sold only 19,620 vehicles, down 38.1% year-on-year; Changan CS75 sold only 13,615 vehicles, down 58.4% year-on-year, ranking 6th in the list; Geely Boyue sold 10,780 vehicles, down 25% year-on-year, ranking 14th in the list. Recently, the Great Wall has been frequently exposed to the problem of delivery delays, which is explained by the official explanation for the insufficient supply of the supporting body electronic stability system (ESP), as well as other factors such as raw material supply, but the main reason for the sharp decline in Haval H6 and the same price competitors is still the inadaptability of the independent brand compact SUV to the electrification market in terms of fuel consumption.
From the perspective of market changes, the joint venture SUV not only has a stronger brand premium rate, but also the blessing of the "two fields" hybrid model also provides a reinforcing effect for the two models in the market. In February, the Honda CR-V sold a total of 25,734 units, up 54.3% year-on-year, and the Toyota RAV4 sold a total of 15,029 units, up 70.4% year-on-year.
Medium-sized SUV: Hugging the high-end "thigh"
Under the dual influence of high-end electrification and consumption upgrading, medium-sized SUVs are gradually becoming the new darling of the market, although the growth rate is not as exaggerated as the micro-electric vehicle market, but under the premise of high value, the medium-sized SUV market has maintained a year-on-year growth rate of more than 50% for two consecutive months, showing full growth potential. In February, a total of 155,000 mid-size SUVs were sold, and the market share rose to 12.3%.
The addition of electrification products such as Tesla Model Y and BYD Tang is undoubtedly the main reason for upgrading mid-size SUVs. In addition, consumers' pursuit of medium-sized SUVs has promoted horizontal comparison and competition for products of the same value of more than 200,000 yuan. In this environment, the dominance of luxury brands over mid-size SUVs has been further highlighted.
The top three mid-size SUVs in February were all luxury brand models, of which the Hongqi HS5 sold a total of 12,311 units, an increase of 89.4% year-on-year; Mercedes-Benz GLC sold a total of 11,944 units, an increase of 33.9% year-on-year; Audi Q5 sold a total of 11,309 units, down 9.8% year-on-year.
On the other hand, with the further launch of joint venture brands in this market segment, the competition in the mid-size SUV market has further improved, and among the top ten medium-sized SUV products, independent brand products account for only three seats, and in addition to the upgrade of Changan UNI-K's main high-value market, the performance of Jetway X70 and Chery Tiggo 8 in the terminal market has declined. On the contrary, Toyota's two medium-sized SUVs sold from more than 200,000 yuan since last year, the Crown Road Release, and the Lingfang have shown an upward trend in the market, which shows that the market demand for high-value SUVs is strong.
Medium and large SUVs: Competition still exists under the potential
Compared with the year of promising Ang also plays the role of the absolute sales crown in the medium and large SUV market, the penetration of new energy for various market segments can no longer be described simply by killing a blood road. After the new energy model officially experienced market precipitation, the ideal ONE with sales of nearly 9,000 units has opened a gap of nearly 3 times with the second-ranked Xingtu TXL.
Only from the perspective of fuel models, the market demand trend in the medium and large SUV market is not obvious, and the ride space is still an important basis for users to choose. However, due to the hot performance of the current high-end home MPV market, the overlap between medium and large SUVs and the MPV market in the use scenario may affect the trend of this market segment in the future.
In February, the Starway TXL ranked first in the market segment with 3,551 units, an increase of 286.8% year-on-year, while Tuon sold 3,531 units, up 70.5% year-on-year, and won the first place in cumulative sales. The inclusion of two new models, Lanjing and Lynk & Co 09, shows the potential vitality of the medium and large SUV market.
Take a look:
The huge changes in the sales ranking of SUVs in February may be affected by many factors such as the Spring Festival holiday and the recurrence of the epidemic, but from the overall changes and growth rates of the market, the trend of electrification and high-end in the SUV market has become clearer. The pouring of independent brands in the direction of electrification has gradually penetrated rapidly into various market segments, and this achievement has also rapidly divided the "cake" of traditional fuel SUVs in the market with the acceleration of electrification.
Whether it is BYD or new forces, the product power shown by high technology or high product value has made consumers re-examine the competitiveness of fuel products in various price ranges. Although from the current technical point of view such as the construction of supporting facilities and the convenience of charging, new energy vehicles cannot completely replace fuel vehicle products in the mainstream price range, as a possibility of providing consumers with more choices, weak fuel vehicle products continue to face huge pressure and challenges in the market.
The data shows that among the 118 fuel SUV products with sales of less than 2,000 vehicles in February, a total of 63 models declined year-on-year, with an average decline of more than 58.5%, which shows that under the obvious growth of the overall SUV market, the last products are still facing the risk of being eliminated by the market at any time.
Attached: February 2022 SUV sales rankings
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