On April 11, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers held a regular press conference to report on the production and sales of automobiles in March and the first quarter. Overall, due to the repeated epidemic in March, supply chain supply cuts, raw material rises and other multiple factors, the production and operation activities of automobile enterprises have been affected to a certain extent, and the overall situation is less than expected; from the perspective of automobile consumption, the consumption momentum is obviously insufficient, and compared with the same period, sales have declined year-on-year. In the first quarter, automobile production and sales increased slightly year-on-year, and the growth rate fell significantly from the same period last year. From the perspective of subdivision models, the growth rate of passenger car production and sales is higher than that of the industry as a whole; the production and sales of commercial vehicles are still declining rapidly year-on-year; the production and sales of new energy vehicles continue to grow rapidly, with both exceeding one million vehicles, and the market share has reached 19.3%, and the strategic leading role of new energy vehicles has been further highlighted.
According to data released by the China Automobile Association, production and sales in March were 2.241 million units and 2.234 million units, up 23.4% and 28.4% month-on-month, and down 9.1% and 11.7% year-on-year, respectively. From January to March, production and sales totaled 6.484 million units, up 2.0% y/y, and sales totaled 6.509 million units, up 2.0% y/y.
Automobile production in March
Car sales in March
In the passenger car segment, production and sales in March were 1.881 million units, up 22.4% and 25.1% sequentially, and down 0.1% and 0.6% year-on-year, respectively. By model, production and sales of sedans and crossover passenger cars increased year-on-year; production and sales of SUVs and MPVs decreased year-on-year.
From January to March, production and sales of passenger cars totaled 5.499 million units and 5.545 million units, up 11.0% and 9.0% year-on-year.
Passenger car sales have changed in the last three years
From the perspective of country-specific car systems, a total of 904,000 Chinese brand passenger cars were sold in March, an increase of 21.5% year-on-year. In terms of market share, March sales accounted for 48.5% of passenger car sales, up 8.8%.
From January to March, Chinese brand passenger car sales were 2.547 million units, up 21.0% year-on-year. In terms of market share, january-March sales accounted for 45.9% of total passenger car sales, up 4.6% from the same period last year.
In the commercial vehicle segment, production and sales in March were 360,000 units, up 29.2% and 47.7% sequentially, and down 38.0% and 43.5% year-on-year, respectively.
From January to March, production of commercial vehicles was 985,000 units, down 29.7% and 31.7% year-on-year, respectively, 2016. In terms of different models, the production and sales of trucks and buses have shown a downward trend.
In March, production and sales of new energy vehicles totaled 465,000 units and 484,000 units, up 1.1 times year-on-year. From the perspective of subdivided energy types, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles were 376,000 units and 396,000 units, the production and sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles were 89,000 units and 88,000 units, respectively, and the production and sales of fuel cell vehicles were 500 units and 367 units, respectively.
Production of new energy vehicles in March
From January to March this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 1.293 million units and 1.257 million units, an increase of 1.4 times year-on-year. Among the main varieties of new energy vehicles, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles reached 1.036 million units and 1.007 million units, respectively, an increase of 1.3 times year-on-year; the production and sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles reached 256,000 units and 249,000 units, respectively, an increase of 2.3 times and 2.0 times year-on-year, respectively; the production and sales of fuel cell vehicles were 856 and 738 units, up 7.2 times and 3.9 times year-on-year, respectively.
New energy sales in March
In terms of exports, automobile exports in March were 170,000 units, down 5.5% month-on-month and 28.8% year-on-year. From January to March this year, auto companies exported 582,000 units, an increase of 58.3% year-on-year. By model, passenger car exports increased by 61.9% y/y to 452,000 units, while commercial vehicle exports increased by 47.2% y/y to 130,000 units.
The market concentration of key enterprise groups is lower than that of the same period. From January to March, the top 10 companies (groups) in terms of automobile sales sold a total of 5.586 million units, accounting for 85.8% of total automobile sales, 0.6 percentage points lower than the same period last year.
At the press conference, the China Automobile Association believes that at present, the mainland's macroeconomic operation remains within a reasonable range, but the complexity and uncertainty of the domestic and foreign environment have intensified, and some have exceeded expectations. Recently, there have been many domestic epidemics, the difficulties of market players have increased significantly, the smooth economic cycle has encountered some constraints, and the new downward pressure has further increased. The development of the automotive industry is facing the triple pressure of demand contraction, supply shock and weak expectations, and the task of stabilizing growth is very arduous. Local governments should refine the national policies and measures on stable growth as soon as possible, and enterprises should continue to actively take effective countermeasures, while suggesting that government departments introduce policies and measures to promote automobile consumption, including the previous effective purchase tax halving policy.
For the future development of the automotive industry, Fu Bingfeng, executive vice president and secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, believes that from the data of the first quarter of this year, Fu Bingfeng expects that the production and sales of new energy vehicles will reach 5 million units in 2022, which will continue to become the main force of market growth, and its leading role in the world will be further highlighted. At the same time, Fu Bingfeng stressed that high-end brand new energy vehicles are accelerating the replacement of traditional oil vehicles, and medium and low products are also accelerating their popularity.