Ride-hailing Association: Orders for new energy vehicles are hot before price increases Retail sales in March were 445,000 units

Zhongxin Finance, April 11, 2022 The WeChat public account of the China Association of Passenger Vehicles released an analysis of the national passenger car market in March 2022, and the analysis showed that the retail sales of the passenger car market in March 2022 reached 1.579 million units, down 10.5% year-on-year and 25.6% month-on-month, and the retail trend in March was more differentiated. There are 13 companies with wholesale sales exceeding 10,000 vehicles (an increase of 2 over the same period last year), including BYD 104338 and Tesla China 65,814.

Since the supply of chips has recovered from February, there is a good basis for the recovery of production and sales in March. Recently, the inventory of manufacturers has increased, terminal discounts have been expanded, and the consumer car purchase cycle has been shortened. After the Spring Festival, a number of new cars were listed, attracting some consumers to buy cars, and the car market should show a stable upward trend in March. The COVID-19 epidemic in March spread across the country, and all localities continue to resolutely adopt the strategy of zeroing out social coverage. Distributors in Jilin, Shanghai, Shandong, Guangdong, Hebei and other places have been affected by the entry and transaction of stores, and the changes in the measures in charge of various places have a certain impact on logistics efficiency, and retail losses are large.

Luxury car retail sales in March were 230,000 units, down 14% year-on-year and up 43% month-on-month. Retail sales of luxury cars in early March were significantly stronger than the previous month, and in the later period, with the changes in the epidemic prevention and control situation in the main sales areas, they failed to continue the february trend.

In March, 750,000 self-owned brand retail units were sold, up 17% year-on-year and 37% month-on-month. The domestic retail share of independent brands in March was 48.2%, an increase of 11.5 percentage points year-on-year, and the cumulative share from January to March was 48%, an increase of 9.7 percentage points compared with the same period in 2021. The wholesale market share of independent brands in March was 48.4%, an increase of 9 percentage points over the same period last year, and the cumulative share of independent brands from January to March was 46%, an increase of 5.1 percentage points compared with the same period in 2021. Independence in the new energy market has achieved a significant increase, the performance of head enterprises is differentiated, and traditional car brands such as Changan Automobile and BYD have shown high growth year-on-year.

Mainstream joint venture brand retail sales of 590,000 units in March, down 30% year-on-year and up 9% month-on-month. The retail share of Japanese brands in March was 20%, down 3 percentage points year-on-year. The share of Ashkenazi brands was 18%, down 7 percentage points year-on-year. The retail share of the US market reached 10%, down 0.5 percentage points year-on-year. The legal share increased by 0.3 percentage points.

In terms of exports, passenger car exports (including vehicles and CKDs) under the statistical caliber of the Association of Passenger Vehicles in March were 107,000 units, an increase of 14% year-on-year and a decrease of 20% month-on-month. The instability of the external environment and the small number of European exports have affected the exports of car companies. New energy vehicles accounted for 10.7% of total exports in March. In March, the export of independent brands reached 95,000 units, an increase of 24% year-on-year, and the growth rate slowed down; the export of joint ventures and luxury brands reached 12,000 units, down 30% year-on-year.

In terms of production, passenger car production in March was 1.823 million units, down 0.3% year-on-year and up 22.0% month-on-month. Among them, the production of luxury brands fell by 31% year-on-year and 8% month-on-month; the production of joint venture brands fell by 10% year-on-year and increased by 17% month-on-month; and the production of independent brands increased by 23% year-on-year and 36% month-on-month.

Although there was a slight loss in production affected by the epidemic factors, the production and sales growth of the automobile market in March was relatively good, and the supply of joint venture chips gradually improved, promoting stable production and sales in March.

In March, the wholesale sales of manufacturers were 1.814 million units, down 1.6% year-on-year and 23.6% month-on-month, and the performance of some car companies was differentiated due to production constraints. From January to March, wholesale sales reached 5.439 million units, up 8.3% year-on-year, achieving a real start. Although due to the impact of the epidemic in March, the trend pressure this year is great, but due to the demand for replenishment and the strong sales of new energy, the cumulative wholesale growth rate from January to March is 8.3% under the comprehensive influence, which is stronger.

The post-holiday production and sales cycle in March was complete, but the structural loss was large, forming a driving production and sales trend in which the output of manufacturers was higher than the sales volume of 10,000 vehicles, and the domestic wholesale of manufacturers was higher than that of retail sales of 230,000 vehicles, which contrasted with the production and marketing pull-pull inventory reduction in March 2021, and also formed the characteristics of the wholesale growth rate of manufacturers in March (-1.6%) which was significantly better than the retail growth rate (-10.5%).

The first three quarters of 2021 experienced a special cycle from destocking to nearby safety stocks, and the inventory of manufacturers in the fourth quarter was rapidly replenished, laying a strong performance for wholesale in January-March this year. Factors at the end of the quarter led to the characteristics of increasing inventory in March, decomposition point of view, in March manufacturer inventory increased by 10,000 vehicles month-on-month, January to March cumulative decline of 80,000 vehicles, while january to March 2021 manufacturer inventory fell by 200,000 vehicles, this year's manufacturer inventory improvement is greater. Channel inventory in March increased by 130,000 units month-on-month, and channel inventory increased by 100,000 units in January-March, a strong contrast from 380,000 units from January to March 2021, driving a significant increase in wholesale sales.

Wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 455,000 units in March, up 122.4% year-on-year and 43.6% month-on-month, close to the previous year. From January to March, the wholesale number of new energy passenger vehicles was 1.190 million units, an increase of 145.4% year-on-year. Retail sales of new energy passenger cars reached 445,000 units in March, up 137.6% year-on-year and 63.1% month-on-month, both better than the march trend of the calendar year. From January to March, domestic retail sales of new energy passenger cars were 1.070 million units, up 146.6% year-on-year.

The trend of new energy vehicles and traditional fuel vehicles in March has a certain contrast, and the purchase of production materials in March drives the demand for traditional car exchange, releasing the popularity of automobiles and upgrading consumption; the strong growth of new energy vehicles in the spring influenza season, the safe travel of the second car of the family is of great significance, echoing the further recognition and adaptation of urban residents to new energy models in short-distance travel.

In terms of the new energy vehicle market, affected by the price increase, the order performance before the price increase is hot, and the overall order is sufficient. Overall, although the domestic epidemic still has local sporadic cases, especially in megacities such as Shenzhen and Shanghai, the relatively mild epidemic prevention measures in most areas at that time had no obvious impact on residents' travel and car purchase consumption, which promoted the sales of new energy vehicles.

1) Wholesale: The wholesale penetration rate of new energy vehicle manufacturers in March was 25.1%, an increase of 14 percentage points from the 11.1% penetration rate in March 2021. In March, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles of independent brands was 41%; the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in luxury vehicles was 34%,, while the penetration rate of new energy vehicles of mainstream joint venture brands was only 3%. In March, the wholesale sales of pure electric vehicles were 371,000 units, an increase of 116.8% year-on-year; plug-in hybrid sales were 84,000 units, an increase of 151.3% year-on-year, which to a certain extent verified the market prediction of some manufacturers that "plug-in hybrid is the first step in the transformation of oil vehicle potential customers". In March, the electric vehicle A00 model grew the strongest year-on-month compared with February, and the growth rate of models from small to large gradually decreased. The dumbbell structure of the pure electric market has improved, of which A00-class wholesale sales of 119,000 units, an increase of 75% month-on-month, accounting for 32% of pure electric vehicles; A0-class wholesale sales of 55,000 vehicles, accounting for 15% of pure electric vehicles; A-class electric vehicles accounted for 22% of pure electric vehicles; B-class electric vehicles reached 113,000 units, an increase of 32% month-on-month, accounting for 30% of pure electric shares.

2) Retail: The domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles in March was 28.2%, an increase of 17.6 percentage points from the penetration rate of 10.6% in March 2021. In March, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in independent brands was 46% and that of new energy vehicles in luxury vehicles was 32%, while the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in mainstream joint venture brands was only 4.3%.

3) Exports: In March, 11,000 new energy vehicles were exported, due to factors at the end of the quarter, Tesla China exported 60 vehicles, down 33,000 units from the previous month, SAIC Motor passenger car exported 4658 new energy vehicles, Dongfeng EasyJet exported 2532 vehicles, BYD 1109 vehicles, 1046 DPCA, other car companies new energy vehicles mainly in the domestic market.

4) Car companies: In March, the new energy passenger car market diversified, BYD pure electric and plug-and-mix dual drive to consolidate the leading position of its own brand new energy; the traditional car companies represented by the SCO Group and the GUANGZHOU AUTOMOBILE Group performed relatively prominently in the new energy sector. There are 13 enterprises with wholesale sales exceeding 10,000 (an increase of 2 over the same period last year), including: BYD 104338, Tesla China 65,814, SAIC-GM-Wuling 51,157, Chery Automobile 21,817, GAC Aian 20,317, Changan Automobile 15,624, Xiaopeng Automobile 15,414, Great Wall Motor 15,057, Geely Automobile 14,166, Nezha Car 12,026, Ideal Car 11,034, and SAIC Passenger Car 10,880 , 10,059 zero-run cars.

5) New forces: In March, xiaopeng, ideal, Nezha, zero run, Weilai, Weima and other new forces car companies sales performance was generally better year-on-year and month-on-month, especially the price increase of Xiaopeng, ideal, Nezha has little impact, and the month-on-month growth is very good. Among the mainstream joint venture brands, North and South Volkswagen's new energy vehicles were wholesaled to 12,709 units, accounting for 63% of the mainstream joint venture, and Volkswagen's firm electrification transformation strategy has achieved initial results. Other joint ventures and luxury brands are still waiting to be strengthened.

6) General hybrid: The wholesale number of ordinary hybrid passenger cars in March was 74,625 units, an increase of 62% year-on-year and 32% month-on-month. Among them, Toyota has 44610 vehicles, Honda 22990 vehicles, Great Wall Motors 2602 vehicles, GAC Motor 1792 passenger cars, Geely Automobile 1239 vehicles, Dongfeng Nissan 1184 vehicles, and hybrid has gradually become a new hot spot. (End)

(China News Network)