In February, the "Top Three Germans" strongly led the high-end B-class car market, occupying more than 80% of the market share. Among them, the BMW 3 Series continued its upward trend at the beginning of the year, becoming the only model in the market segment with sales exceeding 10,000; Mercedes-Benz C-Class has climbed its production capacity after the "new generation", and its sales have successfully returned to the "top three". In contrast, the Cadillac CT5 and Volvo S60 perform steadily, and the emergence of the new Lincoln Z for "new players" is likely to upset this balance.
Focusing on the joint venture B-segment car market, only one-third of the brands achieved positive year-on-year growth, while Japanese brands won the top three in this segment. It is worth noting that since September 2021, after the Japanese system won the top three sales rankings, this kind of "hegemony" has become a norm.
Under the influence of unfavorable factors such as the "lack of core" in the whole industry and the continued rise in raw material costs, the sales volume of high-end brand passenger cars produced in China in February was 268,000 units, an increase of 31.6% year-on-year, an increase of 20.5 percentage points over January. This fully shows that the high-end car market maintains a high-speed growth trend.
In the high-end B-class car segment, the sales of the "Top Three Germans" - BMW Brilliance, Beijing Benz and FAW Audi (BBA) occupy more than 80% of the market share and lead strongly. Among them, the BMW 3 Series continued its upward trend at the beginning of the year, becoming the only model in this segment with sales exceeding 10,000. The Mercedes-Benz C-class has climbed its production capacity after the "new generation" and successfully returned to the "top three" in sales.
"In the first two months, Mercedes-Benz C-class cars were relatively small, and the discount was only 5,000 or 6,000 yuan, and the current cash discount rate exceeded 40,000 yuan." The sales staff of a Mercedes-Benz 4S store in Beijing told reporters, "The Inventory in the Mercedes-Benz C-class store is sufficient, taking the 2022 Mercedes-Benz C260L sports model as an example, the colors that can be thought of have existing cars." ”
However, it is worth noting that from the cumulative sales in January and February this year, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class is being distanced by competitors BMW 3 Series and Audi A4L. Zhang Yan, senior executive vice president of Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales Service Co., Ltd., said in an interview with a reporter from China Economic Network that he would not blindly pursue pure digital growth, but hoped to work with all partners to achieve sustainable growth of business, continuously present and enhance brand value, and provide users with more and better services.
In contrast, the Cadillac CT5 and Volvo S60 perform steadily, however, the emergence of the new Lincoln Z of the "new player" is likely to upset this balance. The new Lincoln Z was officially launched a few days ago, launching a total of seven models, priced at 252,800-340,800 yuan, this price range and Cadillac CT5, Volvo S60 and other models have a significant overlap.
Following the successful creation of adventurers and the "return" of the Lincoln brand to the public eye, the new Lincoln Z has undoubtedly become another "trump card" for Lincoln to achieve a new breakthrough in sales. Joy Falotico, President of Lincoln Worldwide, said: "Our localization manufacturing and car product strategy in the Chinese market will better meet the diversified product needs of Chinese consumers and demonstrate Lincoln's commitment to the Chinese market."
Focusing on the joint venture B-segment car market, only one-third of the brands achieved positive year-on-year growth in February, and Japanese brands won the top three in this segment. It is worth noting that since September 2021, the Japanese system has won the top three of the sales list, and this kind of "hegemony" has become a norm.
Specifically, the "head camp" represented by Accord, Tianlai and Camry is ranked first, second and third. In fact, the joint venture B-segment car market has been led by the German "Mapa" for a long time, until the Accord won the title of the segment in 2019 and 2020, and the Camry reached the top in 2021, gradually showing the competitiveness of the Japanese brand.
In stark contrast, SAIC-GM's "Double Junyibao" (Regal, LaCrosse and Maruibao) can be described as "completely destroyed", with sales of only 1826, 1168 and 898 vehicles. In 2019, Regal "stood out", surpassing Tianlai to lead the "waist echelon", and has also performed steadily in the past two years. However, in 2022, the growth rate of Regal has slowed down, and the cumulative sales volume has only hovered in 10,000 vehicles.
It is worth mentioning that Mondeo sold only 25 vehicles in February, slipping to the bottom of the "tail echelon", but this is also related to its "alternating old and new" period. On March 18, Changan Ford's new generation of Mondeo was officially pre-sold, with a price range of 159,800 to 219,800 yuan, and the whole series is equipped with a 2.0T+8AT power combination. The new car is an important model under Ford's China 2.0 strategy and will be officially launched at the Beijing Auto Show in April. On the whole, whether it is price, space or configuration, the new generation of Mondeo can be described as "full of sincerity", and whether it can be favored by consumers after listing and achieve the "revival" of Changan Ford's sales is very much looking forward to. (China Economic Network reporter Zhang Yi)