Car companies "bright sword" in the first quarter New energy vehicles and overseas market support role is obvious

Reporter Yu Dian Zhang Jiazhen reported in Shanghai

Despite facing multiple challenges, domestic car companies still handed over an answer sheet for the year-on-year increase in production and sales in the first quarter of this year.

According to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (hereinafter referred to as "CAAM") on April 11, domestic automobile production and sales reached 6.484 million units and 6.509 million units from January to March this year, respectively, an increase of 2% and 0.2% year-on-year.

It is worth noting that new energy vehicles are becoming an important driving force for the development of the domestic automobile industry. In the first quarter of this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 1.2 million units, an increase of about 1.4 times year-on-year, and the market share reached 19.3%.

At the same time, the reporter of China Business Daily learned in the interview that "going to sea" is becoming the key word for the development of China's automobile industry. As more and more car companies "go global", while China's automobile export volume is significantly increasing, the influence of independent car brands in the international market is also expected to be further enhanced.

Fu Bingfeng, vice president and secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said recently: "From the situation in the first quarter of this year, new energy vehicles are expected to reach 5 million units in the whole year, becoming the main force of market growth and further highlighting their leading role in the world." The development of the mainland's new energy automobile industry has accelerated its transformation from policy-driven to market-driven, and new energy vehicles have become the biggest highlight of the current development of the automotive industry. ”

Passenger car production and sales are stable and improving

In the first quarter of this year, the mainland automobile industry as a whole continued to maintain a steady growth trend.

According to the statistics of the China Automobile Association, from January to March this year, the production and sales of passenger cars reached 5.499 million units and 5.545 million units, respectively, an increase of 11.0% and 9.0% year-on-year, respectively. Among them, the production and sales of passenger cars in March were particularly impressive, with 1.881 million units and 1.864 million units completed, respectively, up 22.4% and 25.1% month-on-month.

The performance of the new energy vehicle market is still outstanding. From January to March, production and sales of new energy vehicles totaled 1.293 million units, and sales totaled 1.257 million units, up 1.4 times year-on-year. Among them, 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 were 256,000 units and 249,000 units, up 2.3 times and 2.0 times year-on-year, respectively; and the production and sales of fuel cell vehicles were 856 units and 738 units, up 7.2 times and 3.9 times, respectively.

"In the first quarter, automobile production and sales increased slightly year-on-year, and the growth rate dropped significantly from the same period last year. From the perspective of subdivided 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 new energy vehicles have continued the rapid growth momentum, 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. Caucus said.

It is worth noting that according to the data released by the Association, in March this year, the penetration rate of the domestic retail market of new energy vehicles was 28.2%. Industry analysts believe that the continuous development of the new energy automobile industry and the continuous breakthrough of penetration rate mean that the new energy automobile industry has once again ushered in a new inflection point in development.

Xu Changming, deputy director of the State Information Center, said at the China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum held recently: "In the future, new energy vehicles will maintain a period of rapid development. There are four basic bases: the 'double carbon' strategy will form a new thrust; intelligence will form a new pull; scale will make the upstream and downstream industrial chains interact with the whole vehicle; and consumers' awareness and acceptance of new energy vehicles are rapidly improving. ”

With the continuous release of favorable policies and the significant increase in production and sales, car companies are also actively planning to lay out production capacity to cope with the rapid expansion of new energy vehicle market demand.

Geely Automobile Holdings Limited (00175. HK) recently released sales data show that sales exceeded 100,000 vehicles in March this year, reaching 101166 vehicles, achieving a double year-on-year growth. In the field of new energy and hybrids, sales reached 15,557 units in a single month, an increase of about 332% year-on-year.

An Conghui, chairman of Geely Automobile Group, executive director of Geely Automobile Holdings Co., Ltd., and CEO of Extreme Kr Intelligent Technology, said at the results conference held recently: "Although the uncertainty of the epidemic and supply chain is large, The determination of Extreme Kr to achieve sales of 650,000 vehicles in 2025 is unswerving, and we are confident that the global high-end electric vehicle market share ranks among the top three in the world." In the next 3 years, Krypton will launch 6 models. ”

According to reports, in January this year, Geely Holding Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Wuxi Huishan District, planning to invest 10 billion yuan in the layout of Wuxi city to build a new energy powertrain project with an annual production capacity of 600,000 units (sets), mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of high-performance electric drive series products.

Car companies compete for the electrification highlands

With BYD officially announcing that it will stop the production of fuel vehicles from March, the transformation of electrification is no longer a choice, but the only way to ensure the sustainable development of car companies.

Traditional car companies represented by the Shanghai Automobile Group are also accelerating their start on the new energy vehicle track and becoming the "leading dancers" in the wave of electrification transformation.

According to the production and sales express report released by SAIC Motor Group a few days ago, in the first quarter of this year, the total production and sales of SAIC Motor's vehicles were 1269347 and 1220563 units, respectively, an increase of 5.52% and 6.84% year-on-year. Among them, SAIC Motor's new energy vehicle sales exceeded 192,000 units, an increase of 27.7% year-on-year, and the growth rate was more obvious.

From the perspective of subdivision brands, SAIC Motor's own brands continue to exert efforts in the new energy vehicle track, and high-end products are accelerating their landing.

A few days ago, the latest sales data released by SAIC Roewe showed that in the first quarter of this year, SAIC Roewe's cumulative sales reached 85,303 vehicles. It is worth noting that SAIC Roewe's new energy vehicle sales in March increased by 20% month-on-month, of which Clavi CLEAR increased by 14% month-on-month, while roewe i6 MAX EV pure electric version increased by 227% month-on-month.

With the official listing of Zhiji L7 Pro, a subsidiary of Zhiji Automobile, SAIC Motor's product line layout in high-end electric vehicles has also been further enriched. As a high-end electric vehicle brand jointly built by SAIC Motor, Alibaba and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech, Zhiji L7 Series Zhiji Automobile is the first mass-produced model of Zhiji Automobile.

Guosen Securities Research Report pointed out that SAIC Motor has steadily promoted the transformation of electric intelligence, a number of independent brand new energy models have been launched, the performance of new products has continued to improve, and sales are expected to increase rapidly. "The R brand will complement the L project (Zhiji Automobile), the R brand as a new force state-owned enterprise brand, the main differentiated route, and zhiji automobile positioning high-end luxury brands."

On the other hand, the sales of Ruilan Automobile, which mainly switches circuit lines, have also grown rapidly. According to the data, Ruilan Automobile's sales in March were 2008 vehicles, an increase of 24% month-on-month; the cumulative sales volume in the first quarter of this year was 5309 vehicles, and this year it took only 3 months to complete 60% of the sales volume in 2021. While sales are rising rapidly, the order volume of Ruilan Automobile in March also rose, reaching 11,298 units.

"The company will adhere to the brand positioning of 'new generation of power exchange travel new potential energy', comprehensively exert efforts to replace the power industry from the dimensions of product layout, channel planning, ecological construction, etc., and strive to become a 'national power exchange popularizer'." The relevant person in charge of Ruilan Automobile said, "At the same time, Ruilan Automobile will also meet the diversified car needs of users through four major guarantee systems of technical support, service training, spare parts supply and service management. ”

The competitiveness of overseas markets continues to rise

In addition to continuing to exert efforts in electrification, car companies are also actively expanding their territory and selling Chinese car brands to the world. At present, going to sea to conquer new markets has become the consensus of the automotive industry.

According to data released by the China Automobile Association, from January to March this year, mainland automobile companies exported 582,000 vehicles, 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.

Specific to March this year, auto companies exported 170,000 vehicles, an increase of 28.8% year-on-year. Among them, the export growth contribution of new energy vehicles was 17.4%.

"For every three Chinese cars sold overseas, 1 is made by SAIC." As a leading enterprise in the domestic automotive industry, SAIC Motor's overseas performance is also excellent. In the first quarter of this year, SAIC Motor's overall overseas sales exceeded 172,000 units, an increase of 44.9% year-on-year. Among them, mg brand sales reached 135,000 units worldwide from January to March, ranking among the top 10 single-brand sales in 18 countries around the world, including Australia, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia.

Chery Group, as one of the first automobile companies in China to export vehicles, engines and vehicle manufacturing technology and equipment to the world, has a very high degree of investment and importance to overseas markets. The latest sales data released by Chery Group shows that in the first quarter of this year, Chery Group achieved cumulative vehicle sales of 229277 vehicles, an increase of 11.5% year-on-year. Among them, the sales volume of new energy vehicles was 53,054 units, an increase of 212.6% year-on-year; the export of 69,907 units, an increase of 30.8% year-on-year.

At the same time, Chery Group has taken the initiative to carry out in-depth cooperation with international suppliers and Internet giants in overseas markets, carry out joint innovation in multiple fields, and do product "adaptive development" around the needs of local users. In Brazil, Chery Group established the first overseas plant of Chinese automobiles, with a total of 150,000 exports; in Chile, Chery Group surpassed mainstream brands, and its sales volume ranked in the top three in the Chilean market in 2021.

It is understood that Chery Group's products have been exported to more than 80 countries and regions, with a total of 10 million global users, of which more than 2 million overseas users.

With more and more plans and products released one after another, Chinese car companies are standing on the big wind outlet of "sailing to the sea". The data shows that in 2021, China's total automobile exports exceeded 2 million for the first time, reaching 2.015 million vehicles, doubling the growth year-on-year. Among them, the export volume of new energy vehicles reached 310,000 units, a substantial increase of 304.6% year-on-year.

Zheng Yun, global senior partner of Roland Berger and vice president of Greater China, said in an interview with reporters: "The main way for domestic car companies to go to sea now is to use the configuration function of the product itself, superimposed on differentiated selling points such as cost performance, service and interaction as product competitiveness. In terms of new energy vehicle categories, the overall performance of car companies going to sea is more prominent, and they have certain competitiveness in the global market. ”

In the view of Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, the biggest feature of independent brand new energy vehicles is that the market competitiveness is gradually increasing, and the competitive advantage is becoming more and more obvious. "The entry of Chinese car companies into the European market not only represents the increasingly perfect Chinese automobile manufacturing system, but also shows that the market competitiveness of Chinese manufacturing is gradually increasing."

(Editor: Zhang Jiazhen Proofreader: Zhang Guogang)