In the new wave of the epidemic, the Chinese auto market that ended Q1 also broke out a new round of "foreign feelings".
According to the march automobile market production and sales data just released by the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the pattern of the automobile market has changed drastically again. In March, the "Chinese Legion" composed of Changan, BYD and Geely occupied three seats in the retail (narrow passenger car) ranking of automobile companies, and in addition to FAW-Volkswagen still holding the top spot in the joint venture brand, only GAC Toyota squeezed into the top five.
Behind the increasing differentiation of the sales ranking of car companies, there are environmental reasons, and naturally there are also internal influences.
In terms of the general environment, retail sales in the passenger car market also fell by 10.5% year-on-year to 1.579 million units in March, and the cumulative retail sales from January to March this year were 4.915 million units, down 4.5% year-on-year, down 230,000 units year-on-year.
In the view of the Federation of Automobile Associations, the production and sales in March should have had a good performance on the basis of the recovery of chip supply in February, but under the new wave of the epidemic in March, the overall sales of the automobile market did not meet expectations.
Of course, for the changes in the sales ranking of car companies, we cannot simply attribute it to the epidemic and "lack of core", in the final analysis, we still have to speak with product strength.
For example, BYD has risen rapidly with the excellent performance of blade batteries and DM-i, becoming the third place in sales in March, and the follow-up momentum is rapid. According to BYD's previously disclosed annual sales target, it is expected to achieve at least 1.5 million vehicles this year.
If the goal comes true, BYD may be expected to compete with FAW-Volkswagen for the title of auto market sales champion this year. This will undoubtedly become a milestone event for Chinese brands, and it will also be a major turning point in the auto market.
Dragged down by the epidemic, mainstream joint ventures have "fallen"
Since the "post-joint venture era" that began in 2022, the gap between Chinese brands and joint venture brands has become wider and wider.
In January, Chinese brands sold 90,000 more units than mainstream joint venture brands in terms of retail sales; in February, mainstream joint venture brands pulled back a city slightly, and re-sold Chinese brands with a slight advantage of 10,000 vehicles; however, by March, the gap between the two suddenly widened again.
According to the data, the retail sales of mainstream joint venture brands in March were 590,000 units, while Chinese brands were 750,000 vehicles, 160,000 more than the joint venture.
Among them, the decrease in the share of Volkswagen and Japan was the main reason for the decline in retail sales of mainstream joint venture brands by 30% year-on-year in March.
Specifically, two mainstream joint venture sales households such as FAW-Volkswagen and FAW Toyota have stopped production since the 13th due to the epidemic in Jilin in March, which has a huge impact on their respective sales.
Faw-Volkswagen's Sales in March, for example, fell nearly 40 percent year-on-year to 126,100 units, while FAW Toyota, although it has not yet announced its March sales, is not expected to be much more optimistic.
On April 11, Sun Jian, director of the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Jilin Province, disclosed in an interview that FAW has fully started to resume work, and it is believed that the sales of the above two companies will have a good growth in April.
However, the next situation of the Volkswagen Department is still not optimistic. This side of the box FAW - Volkswagen resumed work, that side of the box SAIC Volkswagen but due to the epidemic into the suspension of production, and there is no timetable for the specific resumption of work, which is undoubtedly a big blow to SAIC Volkswagen, whose sales have just picked up in the first quarter.
According to the data released by the Federation of Automobile Manufacturers, the Ashkenazi share fell the fastest in March, at 18%, down 7 percentage points year-on-year.
In fact, 2022 is a big year for Volkswagen's products, in addition to the launch of a number of important mid-term models, SAIC Audi, which began to operate this year, will also bring a new increment to it.
However, at the moment when the style of the automobile market is rapidly switching to new energy vehicles, the current tepid ID. series, as well as Volkswagen Anhui, which will not be put into production until next year, are difficult for Volkswagen to achieve rapid growth in sales.
It is worth mentioning that under the situation that the share of French brands in Germany, Japan and the United States has fallen together, the share has increased by 0.3% against the trend. A big reason for this is that DPCA has changed its business strategy, reorganized its product portfolio and marketing channels, and embarked on the road to rejuvenation.
Finally, although the share of Japanese brands, which have always been strong, also fell by 3% year-on-year in March, the performance of major brands was different.
In the first quarter of this year, in the case of Nissan and Honda's sales declining, Toyota still maintained a weak upward momentum. Among them, GAC Toyota, which achieved a year-on-year increase in sales in the first quarter, is undoubtedly the biggest driver.
Driven by the hot sales of Sena, Highlander, Camry and other models, GAC Toyota's sales in March have almost reached the 100,000 mark, and I believe that with another effort, the probability of entering the "Million Club" will be very large.
With the help of new energy overtaking, Chinese brands have finally ushered in an inflection point
In March, the retail share of Chinese brands again approached 50% to 48.2%. This is a new height in the share of Chinese brands since January this year.
At the same time, this also caused drastic changes in the retail ranking of car companies by March. Among them, BYD, which broke through the "100,000+" monthly sales with the soaring sales of new energy vehicles, once rushed to the runner-up position, and the year-on-year increase of up to 3 digits was also the most eye-catching among the top five.
On the other hand, Changan Automobile, which sold 120,000 units in retail sales in March, followed by FAW-Volkswagen, with a gap of only 6,000 units; in terms of wholesale sales, Changan Automobile jumped to the top of the month's sales, surpassing FAW-Volkswagen.
In fact, Changan Automobile and BYD two car companies took the lead in this round of competition, which also shows from the side that whether it is a fuel vehicle or a new energy vehicle, Chinese brands already have the strength to comprehensively compete with mainstream joint venture brands.
And it is particularly worth mentioning that in a number of Chinese brands that sell more than 100,000 vehicles a month, they will basically emphasize the proportion of high-end models, and the "100,000 ceiling" that has been on the head of Chinese brands is gradually being broken.
BYD, which broke the hot sales of new energy vehicles, is undoubtedly a typical example.
Nowadays, like BYD Han EV, Song PLUS DM-i, Tang DM-i and other DM-i super hybrid models are hot sellers, BYD's bicycle price has approached 150,000 yuan. With the discontinuation of its fuel vehicles and the launch of new vehicles such as destroyer 05, BYD SEAL, and frigate 07, BYD will further attack.
In addition to BYD, Geely also pointed out that its high-end China Star series models now account for 28.6% of sales; while Great Wall Motors also emphasized that the proportion of its intelligent models increased to 84.5% in the first quarter of this year, while the three major technology brand models accounted for more than 70%.
In fact, as more and more Chinese brands squeeze into the top 10 sales list, it also means that in the post-joint venture era, the focus of competition has changed from the previous Chinese brands vs mainstream joint ventures to the "inner volume" between Chinese brands.
Kung Fu shoots
Under the bad situation of repeated epidemics and price increases, although the production and sales of the automotive industry in the first quarter did not continue the previous upward momentum, we saw the strong development resilience of Chinese brands.
According to the association, the start of the second quarter of this year may be more pessimistic. Because the current epidemic in Shanghai will cause a greater impact on passenger car production and sales in April, retail sales in the car market in April are expected to be significantly lower than in March.
At present, the pattern of China's automotive industry is undoubtedly in a stage of drastic changes, who can rely on excellent adaptability and management wisdom to get out of the crisis, who can sit firmly in the position of the "bookmaker" of this change.