Header image source | Visual China
April remained not optimistic.
The resurgence of the epidemic has once again formed a strong impact on china's auto market.
On April 11, the National Passenger Car Market Information Association (hereinafter referred to as the "Passenger Car Market Information Association") released the latest sales data, and the retail sales of the passenger car market in March reached 1.579 million units, down 10.5% year-on-year and 25.6% month-on-month; the cumulative retail sales from January to March were 4.915 million units, down 4.5% year-on-year, and the overall trend was lower than expected.
"In March, the new crown epidemic spread throughout the country, and dealers in Jilin, Shanghai, Shandong, Guangdong, Hebei and other places were affected by the entry and transaction of stores, and the changes in local management measures reduced logistics efficiency, resulting in large retail losses." Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Association, explained.
The spread of the epidemic and the rise in oil prices have made everyone's life generally difficult. In addition to the retail share of independent brands in March, which increased by 11.5 percentage points year-on-year to 48.2%, the retail share of joint venture brands generally showed a downward trend. The retail share of Japanese brands was 20%, down 3 percentage points year-on-year; the share of German brands was 18%, down 7 percentage points year-on-year; and the retail share of American brands was 10%, down 0.5 percentage points year-on-year.
In a downturn, the joint venture car companies are struggling to survive. However, FAW-Volkswagen still showed strong resilience. In March, FAW-Volkswagen retail sales were 126,000 units, ranking first in the sales volume of train companies.
For FAW-Volkswagen, it is not easy to win the championship for the second consecutive time. FAW-Volkswagen headquarters is headquartered in Changchun, according to FAW-Volkswagen official data, Changchun base contributed more than a quarter of the production capacity of the FAW-Volkswagen brand, affected by the epidemic prevention and control, Changchun base in March production fell by more than 60% year-on-year, in addition, FAW-Volkswagen's production capacity in Tianjin, Qingdao and Chengdu and other places has also been reduced to varying degrees, with a production reduction of about 30%-50%. This led to a 40.2% year-on-year decline in FAW-Volkswagen's March sales.
The joint venture car companies in the south are also difficult. At present, Shanghai is in the hardest hit area of the epidemic, and the sales of SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling all fell by more than 20% in March, of which SAIC-GM sales fell by 40.5% year-on-year.
Even the most burdened luxury car companies have not been able to "survive" the epidemic. Luxury car retail sales in March were 230,000 units, down 14% year-on-year and up 43% month-on-month. According to the Association, in early March, luxury car retail sales were significantly stronger than the previous month, but in the later period, with the changes in the epidemic prevention and control situation in the main sales area, they failed to continue the february trend.
In the context of the overall decline of passenger cars, new energy vehicles continue to show strong vitality.
According to the data of the Association of Passenger Vehicles, the wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 455,000 units in March, an increase of 122.4% year-on-year and 43.6% month-on-month; the wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles in January-March were 1.190 million units, an increase of 145.4% year-on-year.
On the retail side, the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles reached 28.2% in March, a significant increase of 17.6 percentage points from the penetration rate of 10.6% in March 2021. Among them, the penetration rate of independent brand new energy vehicles is 46%, the penetration rate of luxury new energy vehicles is 32%, and the penetration rate of mainstream joint venture brand new energy vehicles is only 4.3%.
With the improvement of the new energy vehicle market, independent car companies have achieved catch-up with joint venture car companies. According to the manufacturers' sales ranking in March, Changan Automobile successfully counterattacked from seventh place in February to second place; Geely Automobile ranked fifth in February and has now risen to fourth place; BYD ranked third. Changan, Geely and BYD have left behind joint venture car companies such as SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM-Wuling and SAIC-GM.
Source: Multiplying Association
"Autonomous (car companies) have achieved significant increases in the new energy vehicle market, head companies have shown differentiation, and traditional car companies such as Changan Automobile and BYD have shown high growth year-on-year." Cui Dongshu explained.
Tesla is still the one that benefits the most. Tesla sold 65,000 vehicles in March, up 85% year-on-year, according to the Association. Relying on the two main sales models of Model Y and Model 3 alone, it is close to the sales scale of Dongfeng Nissan in March. Tesla's sales in January and February were 59,000 and 56,000 units, respectively, and cumulative sales in the first quarter were 180,000 units, equivalent to the total annual deliveries of NIO and Ideal in 2021.
For the market performance in April, the Association believes that it is still not optimistic. In April, there is a Qingming holiday, and the working day of the whole month is 21 days, and the potential for increase in production and marketing is not large.
At the same time, the epidemic has not yet been alleviated, which has also made April's production and sales face an uncertain state. According to the production data of each province by the National Bureau of Statistics, Shanghai and Jilin Province each account for about 11% of the country's production, and the production of some enterprises in Shanghai is running at full capacity, so the production and sales of passenger cars in the core areas will be greatly affected in April.
The production side has been affected, and the purchasing power of the end market has also been constrained by the epidemic. "At the beginning of April, the new confirmed cases in China were on the rise, and the employees of small and medium-sized enterprises were facing huge pressure to survive, and the retail sales of the car market in April were expected to be significantly lower than in March." Cui Dongshu thinks.
However, in the view of the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the new energy vehicle market will still maintain steady growth in April. Cui Dongshu analyzed, "At present, self-driving travel has become the first choice, but due to the impact of high oil prices, more people may choose to buy new energy vehicles, so the new energy vehicle market in April still maintained strong growth." ”
The author | Su Peng
Edit the | Li Huanhuan