On April 11, Chery Group released its March sales figures for 81,818 units, up 2.2% year-on-year. At present, Chery Group's sales in the first quarter totaled 229,277 units, an increase of 11.5% year-on-year, of which new energy sales were 53,054 units, an increase of 212.6% year-on-year, and exports were 69,907 units, an increase of 30.8% year-on-year.
At present, Chery Automobile, Xingtu Automobile and Jietu Automobile, the three major brands under Chery Group, have all shown a situation of accelerated product iteration, rapid breakthrough in new energy tracks, and continuous hot sales in overseas markets. However, with the end of the first quarter, repeated epidemics and tight supply chains, chery Group's annual target of 1.5 million vehicles was only 15.2%. If you want to successfully achieve your goals this year, the pressure for the next 3 quarters is extremely high.
Specifically, Chery Automobile, the Group's main brand, sold 60,273 units in March, up 14.4% year-on-year, and 172,155 units in the first quarter, up 25.9% year-on-year. Driven by the "big single product" strategy, the flagship SUV Tiggo 8 series sold 41,066 units worldwide in the first quarter, an increase of 14.2% year-on-year, with a cumulative global user of more than 500,000.
Soaring Xingtu Automobile was flat in March due to the epidemic and supply chain, with single-month sales of only 1,957 units, but the cumulative sales from January to March were 10,421 units, an increase of 81.3% year-on-year. At present, the focus of Xingtu Automobile's strength this year lies in the Xingtu Wind Chasing ET-i model equipped with "Star Core Power ET-i Full Engine Super Hybrid" technology and two products of Xingtu Lingyun S, which will add Xingtu Automobile to enter a new stage of "new energy + traditional energy" two-wheel drive and promote brand upwards.
Jietu Automobile, which continues to expand into the "Travel +" segment, performed eye-catchingly, with sales reaching 10,006 units in March, exceeding 10,000 units in a single month. In the first quarter, Jietu Automobile launched the B-class SUV with Kunpeng Power 2.0T engine, jietu X90 zilong, and later this year will launch the first product of Kunlun architecture - Jietu Dasheng. It is not difficult to find that with the continuous strengthening of its product matrix, Jietu Automobile is meeting the needs of users in more travel scenarios, which will also help achieve its annual sales target of 200,000 vehicles.
As the first Chinese passenger car brand to export more than 200,000 vehicles a year, Chery Group has maintained considerable growth in overseas exports, with 69,907 units exported in the first quarter of this year. Today, Chery Group's products are exported to more than 80 countries and regions, with a total of 10 million global users, including more than 2 million overseas users.
Recently, the first global car OMODA 5 developed based on "user thinking + Internet thinking" has officially announced Chinese name and will be listed for the first time in more than 30 overseas markets this year. This new car will undoubtedly become an important support for Chery Automobile to achieve the "Double 50" in overseas markets of the 14th Five-Year Plan.
The breakthrough in sales of the new energy track is also an important highlight of Chery Group this year. In the first quarter of this year, Chery Group sold a total of 53,054 new energy vehicles, an increase of 2.12 times year-on-year. Among them, driven by the two star models of Chery Ant and QQ Ice Cream, 50,013 units were sold in the first quarter, an increase of 255.4% year-on-year. At present, the sales volume of new energy models under the Chery brand has reached 29%.
Although there has been a breakthrough in sales, Chery Group still has a serious "lame" problem in the new energy vehicle market, and its current strength mainly relies on two micro-electric vehicles. As we all know, although the micro-electric vehicle market is hot at this stage, the development potential is limited, and it has even peaked.
On the other hand, PHEV models will usher in an explosive period this year, a number of independent brands have launched their own PHEV models, and delegated to the main model, on the contrary, the action of Chery Group is obviously slow, only Starway Wind Chasing ET-i and Tiggo 8plus Kunpeng e+ two products, and the price overlap is easy to internal consumption, while the configuration level is inferior to the same level of competitors.
It can be seen that if Chery Group wants to achieve more breakthroughs in the new energy market, it must realize the popularity of Kunpeng DHT super hybrid on its three major brands as soon as possible, on the one hand, to get rid of the problem of relying on the volume of micro-electric vehicles, on the other hand, to achieve upward development at the new energy level while seizing opportunities.
As for the previous news that Chery Group will incubate two new energy brands, we think it is not a wise move. This will undoubtedly make Chery Group fall into the dilemma of not concentrating on multi-brand strategic strategic resources in the past, which is not conducive to the development of Chery brand. Instead of recreating two brands, it is better to focus on the development of the current three brands, through a clear market positioning, to create a completed brand recognition chain, and improve the market influence of Chery Group.