Author: Jeff
In the first quarter of 2022, due to the frequent outbreaks of the epidemic and the obstruction of the smooth flow of the economic cycle, China's auto industry suffered a blow at both the production end and the sales end:
At the production end, car companies continue to bear the pressure of "lack of cores" and have to face the impact of the epidemic on production activities, and many domestic factories such as Tesla and Volkswagen have been forced to take temporary suspension measures;
On the sales side, the lack of consumption momentum, coupled with the impact of factors such as rising oil prices and continuous price increases in automobiles, potential car buyers are more cautious, maintain a wait-and-see attitude, and will not be easy to sell.
Under the unfavorable conditions of production and sales in both directions, major car companies are also doing their best to make a good start for this year. Now, the April fangfei in the world has been exhausted, let us look at the car market a few joys and a few sorrows.
Auto market in the first quarter of 2022: Chinese brands enter the joint venture brand retreat
According to the latest data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the overall sales volume of automobiles in the first quarter of 2022 (January-March) was 6.509 million units, a slight increase of 0.2% year-on-year. Although the data increased slightly year-on-year, the growth rate fell significantly from the same period last year.
Passenger car sales in the first quarter were 5.545 million units, up 9.0% year-on-year. Judging from the data, the market share of German, Japanese, American and Korean cars has all declined, and Chinese brands have taken advantage of the trend to further expand their market share.
In March 2022, the performance of Chinese brands was very impressive, completing sales of 904,000 vehicles (according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers), an increase of 21.5% year-on-year, and a market share of 48.5%. From January to March, China's brand passenger car sales were 2.547 million units (according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers), an increase of 21.0% year-on-year, and the market share increased by 4.6 percentage points year-on-year to 45.9%.
The beautiful results come from the hard work of Chinese brand car companies. According to the latest retail sales data released by the Automobile Market Research Branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association (ACRC), among the TOP15 car companies, 6 Chinese brand car companies (Changan, Geely, BYD, Great Wall, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Chery Automobile) totaled 1.4987 million units in the first quarter, an increase of about 6.1% year-on-year. The total retail sales of the nine joint venture brand car companies (FAW-Volkswagen, SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, Dongfeng Nissan, GAC Toyota, GAC Honda, Dongfeng Honda, BMW Brilliance and FAW Toyota) totaled 2.1328 million units, down about 14.6% year-on-year.
The first quarter of 2022 automotive market: new energy into the traditional fuel vehicle retreat
According to the latest data from the Association of Passenger Vehicles, the cumulative sales of narrow passenger cars in China in the first quarter of 2020 were 4.915 million units, down 4.5% year-on-year. Specific to the market segment, the cumulative sales of sedans were 2.368 million units, down 5.3% year-on-year; the cumulative sales of SUVs were 2.308 million units, down 2.3% year-on-year; and the cumulative sales of MPVs were 239,000 units, down 16.3% year-on-year.
In the case of the overall market decline, the new energy passenger car market continues to soar.
In March 2022, the retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 445,000 units (according to the Association of Passenger Vehicles), an increase of 137.6% year-on-year, the highest growth rate in the calendar year, and the penetration rate increased by 17.6 percentage points over last year to 28.2%.
Based on the first quarter data, the sales of new energy passenger cars were about 1.07 million units, an increase of 146.6% year-on-year, showing a thriving trend that is completely different from traditional fuel vehicles.
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Automobile Market Research Branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association (CNA), said: "The new energy market continues to be strong, on the one hand, because the demand for automobile exchange in March is relatively strong, on the other hand, before the general rise in the price of this round of vehicles, new energy products have accumulated sufficient orders and can be gradually released." In addition, soaring oil prices have also boosted the popularity of the new energy market. ”
Auto market in the first quarter of 2022: BYD first Chery, Changan, Geely followed
With the end of the first quarter of 2022, the latest sorting of major brands of cars in the first quarter has also begun to surface.
According to the statistics of the Association of Automobile Associations, among the top 15 car companies in the first quarter of 2022, the first place undoubtedly belongs to BYD, and in the case of the suspension of fuel vehicles in March, BYD still completed 287,400 sales in the first quarter, and the year-on-year growth rate of 182.8% is beyond the reach of all opponents.
It was followed by Chery Automobile, which became the second fastest-growing car company in the first quarter with a year-on-year growth rate of 12.6%.
Subsequently, although Changan Automobile, Geely Automobile, Great Wall Motors and SAIC-GM-Wuling performed poorly, sales declined to varying degrees, but the decline was significantly smaller than that of the joint venture car companies.
On the side of the joint venture car companies, in the first quarter, except for the slight increase in sales of GAC's "two fields", all others suffered "Waterloo". The largest decline was faw-Volkswagen, down 24.6% year-on-year, followed by SAIC Volkswagen (-24.2%), SAIC-GM (-24.2%), Dongfeng Honda (-19.6%), FAW Toyota (-18.3%), Dongfeng Nissan (-16.9%), and BMW Brilliance (-4.1%).
It is also worth noting that the monthly sales of FAW-Volkswagen, SAIC Volkswagen, Dongfeng Nissan and SAIC-GM have fallen three times year-on-year this year. If the timeline is extended to 2021, the Volkswagen "brothers" have jointly completed the feat of 12 consecutive declines year-on-year, and Dongfeng Nissan and SAIC-GM have also achieved good results of 11 consecutive falls and 10 consecutive falls, respectively.
In this regard, Cui Dongshu believes: "Changan, BYD and other independent brand car companies have performed well, thanks to the continuous hot market of new energy vehicles. As the main growth point of independent brands, new energy products have inherent advantages compared with joint venture brands, and the market share of independent brands does not rule out the possibility of further pushing up. ”
One in and one out, the new energy vehicles of independent brands are imported, and the fuel vehicles of joint venture brands are withdrawn. In the fuel vehicle market, the joint venture brand that occupies the technical advantage and comes to the newly emerging new energy vehicle market can only watch the independent brands that have been crushed by themselves dashingly "overtaking in the curve".
In the top 15 list of new energy manufacturers in the first quarter released by the Association, independent brands won 13 seats, with a market share of more than 70%, and the other two seats were taken away by Tesla (ranked second, market share 10.1%) and SAIC Volkswagen (ranked 15th, market share 1.8%).
At the same time, 9 of the 13 independent brands achieved a year-on-year increase of more than 100%, of which the highest was Geely Automobile with a year-on-year increase of 437.1%, followed by BYD with 421.5%, followed by Zero Run Automobile with 338.2%, Nezha Automobile with 305.1%, and Chery Automobile with 251.4%.
To sum up, the performance of the domestic automobile market in the first quarter is as follows: independent brands grow against the trend, joint venture brands retreat in spite of difficulties, new energy vehicles advance by leaps and bounds, and traditional fuel vehicles are declining.