Source of this article: Times Finance Author: Liao Wei
The pattern of the domestic automobile market has changed.
According to the latest data released by the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, after surpassing SAIC-Volkswagen in January this year, Changan Automobile again overpowered FAW-Volkswagen in March to win the top spot in the wholesale sales list of manufacturers, with sales of 132,000 units and 122,000 units respectively. However, in the March retailer sales ranking and the first quarter sales list, FAW-Volkswagen is still the first.
Source | Changan Automobile's official website
In terms of camps, in the wholesale sales list of the manufacturers of the association, the performance of independent brands is quite strong, with BYD, Geely Automobile, SAIC-GM-Wuling and Great Wall Motors ranking 4th, 5th, 8th and 9th respectively. However, in the joint venture sector, except for GAC Toyota and GAC Honda, other joint venture brands have basically dropped significantly compared with the same period last year, of which FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC-GM have all declined by more than 30%. In this regard, the Association also pointed out that due to the impact of the epidemic, the transaction volume in Jilin, Shanghai, Shandong, Guangdong, Hebei and other places has been affected. Changes in sealing and control management in various places have an impact on the logistics efficiency of vehicles and parts, resulting in large losses in production and retail sales in key areas."
Specific to the model, after more than a month, Wuling Hongguang MINI once again won the first place in car sales with a monthly sales of 41,980 units, and the long-term top of the list of Xuanyi, Langyi, Corolla, Bora, Sagitar, and Yinglang all fell by more than 30% year-on-year. In this context, Tesla Model 3 (26,000 vehicles) and BYD Qin (24,000 vehicles) successfully counterattacked, ranking third and fourth in the monthly sales list of cars, respectively.
In the SUV segment, the Haval H6, which has been at the top of the list for many years, sold only 19,300 vehicles, falling to the fourth place, Tesla Model Y, BYD Song, Changan CS75 ranked in the top 3, and sales in March were 39,700 units, 26,700 units, and 22,800 units, respectively.
Since 2022, haval H6 sales have not been stable, with sales of 33,318 units, 18,790 units and 19,303 vehicles in the first three months, which is far less than the 41,456 vehicles set in December last year. Tesla Model Y's market performance has been stable in the past two quarters, and its cumulative sales in the first quarter of this year also ranked first in the market segment. According to Times Finance, since the delivery of the domestic Tesla Model Y, it has twice won the first place in the monthly sales list of the SUV segment; 6 times it has won the first place in the monthly sales list of the high-end SUV market. The counterattack of BYD Song is mainly due to the strong climbing performance of Song PLUS DM-i after its listing.
In the high-end sedan (starting price of more than 300,000 yuan, the same below) market is still the reserved place for foreign luxury brands, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi each have two models on the list, both ranked in the top 6. Among the models on the list, except for the Mercedes-Benz E-class, the rest fell by more than 20% year-on-year. The high-end SUV market is a different scene, the strong position of "BBA" has been ended, Tesla Model Y ranked first, an increase of nearly 300% year-on-year, the ideal ONE ranked 4th surpassed the Audi Q5, and the 6th Weilai ES6 surpassed the Mercedes-Benz GLLB.
Source | Ideal Car official website
It is worth mentioning that the sales volume in March showed a significant decline in mostly joint venture brands and their fuel models. In this phenomenon, some insiders analyzed that this may be because under the same circumstances, independent brands have better resolved the supply chain crisis.
"Chip shortages and sharp price increases have made many Chinese car companies realize that the supply chain cannot rely too much on first-tier suppliers, but should find suitable chip suppliers in China, or independently develop chips, which is a rare opportunity for independent chip manufacturers." Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Association of Automobile Associations, recently issued an article saying that independent brand car companies have strengthened the pressure of the chip and achieved good results. Due to self-improvement efforts, there are independent car company BOSS-level leaders rushing to chip companies, chip suppliers, chip wholesale markets and other links that may obtain chips, shouldering great responsibilities and suffering a lot of hardships to ensure the supply of independent chips.
According to the data of the Association of Automobile Associations, the production of independent brands will increase by 29% in 2021, which is significantly better than the industry performance of 21 percentage points. In 2022, the production of independent brands increased by 24% year-on-year, far better than the industry's 18% growth rate of about 6 percentage points.