(Text/Zhang Jiadong Editor/Lou Bing) Due to the impact of the epidemic, the car market was severely damaged in March. Overall, wholesale sales in China's passenger car market totaled 1.814 million units in March, down 1.6% year-on-year. Specifically, the wholesale sales of the three major categories of the automobile market showed a year-on-year downward trend, of which SUVs sold a total of 870,000 units in March, down 0.4% year-on-year.
Since the beginning of March, car companies have gotten rid of the Spring Festival holiday to affect the full recovery of production capacity, coupled with the continuous increase in the demand for replenishment and new energy market demand in the car market, as well as the continuous improvement of the supply of joint venture brand chips, most car companies in March this year have a relatively good upward trend in wholesale sales.
Among them, Changan, BYD, Geely and GUANGZHOU AUTOMOBILE Group all had a large year-on-year increase in wholesale sales.
However, due to changes in the epidemic prevention and control situation, the production of some car companies in March has been seriously affected. Among them, FAW in Jilin and SAIC in Shanghai were the most seriously damaged.
In March this year, FAW-Volkswagen even gave up the top position in wholesale sales of manufacturers because of the 43.1% decline. Saic-Volkswagen also fell 2.2% year-on-year in the environment of workers in full isolation and rush to work in the workshop; in contrast, SAIC-GM slipped to the 7th place in wholesale sales with a decline of 31.4%.
Changes in the overall market have also changed the ranking of the SUV sales list. In terms of the overall list, in addition to Haval H6, Changan CS75, geely Boyue continue to continue the downward trend since February, in the SUV market, the two joint ventures of North and South Volkswagen and Honda also showed a significant year-on-year decline at the market end.
Due to the severe decline in sales of the above-mentioned car companies, the sales of mainstream joint venture SUVs in March totaled 222,000 units, down 28.2% year-on-year. The decline in German and Japanese SUVs, which just improved in February, was again pulled up to more than 24% decline. The U.S. SUV continues to rely on the strong performance of Tesla Model Y and maintains rapid growth in the market, but due to the Tesla Super Factory in Shanghai Lingang officially began to stop production due to the epidemic at the end of March, and SAIC-GM also fully entered the shutdown state, it is expected that from April onwards, the U.S. SUV may also have a serious decline in the market.
In terms of independent SUVs, the stall of the Great Wall from February has caused a rapid decline in independent SUVs, and in March, the great wall production capacity affected by the epidemic has intensified on the basis of the original lack of cores.
However, the impact of the epidemic on some car companies, other SUV manufacturers have gained the opportunity to make up for the market. In the overall list, such as Changan CS55, Trumpchi GS4 and other products returned to the forefront of the list, showing that the overall market demand for SUVs is still warming up compared with the previous two years. And due to the more perfect supply chain and broader market coverage of independent car companies such as BYD, the year-on-year growth rate of 11% of independent SUVs in March was much higher than the 5% year-on-year growth rate of the market from January to March.
The impact of external factors on the market is also reflected in the various market segments of the SUV list.
Small SUVs: follow-up weakness
The A0-class SUV market continued its sharp decline in total sales, with a total of 98,000 units sold in March, down 18.9% year-on-year. Overall, the mainstream products of small SUVs have basically been fixed in the market, because the price is generally at the level of 100,000 yuan, and the profit is insufficient under the condition of close product strength, car companies are generally slow in the electrification transformation layout of small SUVs.
After BYD upgraded the meta-series products to a compact-level meta-PLUS, there has been almost no new sales growth point for small SUVs in recent years. But due to the tightening of the market segment, the top ten products of small SUVs have not changed much, with an average decline of only 1.9% in March. And Binzhi, XR-V, Binyue still firmly guard the first-line echelon of small SUVs, and short-term sales fluctuations are not enough to affect the stability of the market.
Unlike the performance in the specific rankings in the previous two months, due to the serious impact of the epidemic on the production capacity side of FAW and SAIC products, the Audi Q2L and Volkswagen Exploration, which were still on the list in February, disappeared from the March list.
At the same time, the Dongfeng Honda XR-V, which has always led the small SUV market, fell 32.1% year-on-year in March, giving the top spot in the market segment to the same brother Guangqi Honda Binzhi. MG ZS, which has been steadily rising in the market since last year, also delivered sales of only 7,165 vehicles in March, down 13.5% year-on-year.
Compact SUV: The Great Wall bids farewell to the altar
In March, the A-class SUV market sold a total of 416,000 units, as the largest segment of the SUV category, compact SUV products in March sales fell by 16.7% year-on-year, and from January to March, the market also had a year-on-year decline of 13.4%. Among them, the fall of mainstream autonomous SUVs is undoubtedly the key.
The Haval H6 fell to third place in the overall list this month, and if you add the electric impact of the BYD Song family, its actual ranking has fallen to fourth place. Perhaps the Great Wall can explain the lack of production capacity to explain the overtaking by Changan CS75 in March, but it has ranked first in the lost market for three consecutive months, and the year-on-year decline has reached more than 30%, which clearly proves that the Great Wall's current dominance in the field of compact SUVs has declined seriously.
On the other hand, Great Wall Group's year-on-year sales fell by 8.86% in March, and the Haval brand, which focuses on SUVs, fell by 18.83% year-on-year. Under the influence of the epidemic, the Great Wall with a tighter supply chain will also face greater challenges, Haval H6 has declined, and newly built big dogs, red rabbits and other products have encountered rising bottlenecks, Tank 300 announced on April 14 that it was temporarily suspended, and the current Great Wall is in urgent need of self-help.
Similar to the situation in February, The Changan CS75 still fell by 25.9% while the group's production capacity was not affected by the epidemic, while Geely Boyue only sold 10,000 units, a decline of 33.2%. Undoubtedly, the three giants of compact independent SUVs, at present, in the promotion of product strength, it is difficult to resist the Japanese and German SUV competitors with more brand power.
However, unlike the Great Wall, Geely and Changan have the same level of other products to make up, such as Changan's CS55 and Changan Auchan X5, which returned to the public eye in March, both of which entered the top 10 of the market segment in terms of cumulative sales in the month and this year, and Geely Xingyue L also made up for the gap in Geely's compact SUV market after the decline of Boyue through the blessing of CMA architecture.
In addition, in March, Dongfeng Honda CR-V and Guangqi Honda Haoying also had a year-on-year decline of more than 20%, combined with production capacity, the reason for Honda's decline is still due to the shortage of parts caused by the epidemic. At the same time, for the same reason, there are also Volkswagen products and FAW Toyota products. In March, FAW's RAV4 sales under the suspension of production were only 10,596 units, down 51.8% year-on-year.
Medium-sized SUVs: The main sales market is cold, and the public is shut down
In March, 207,000 B-class SUVs were sold, up 32.7% y/y. Among them, Tesla Model Y, which single-handedly contributes 20% of sales, has become the biggest promoter of the same level of market.
In terms of fuel products, the car companies most affected by the impact of the mid-size SUV market are North and South Volkswagen. Main sales of Tiguan L and Tanyue were both hit hard in March, falling 34.2% and 37.3% respectively.
Under the spell of geely's epidemic, FAW Group as a whole showed a huge downward trend, Hongqi's main sales model HS5 also sold only 6830 units in March, down 41.4% year-on-year, and Audi Q5L wholesale sales were only 4632 units, bidding farewell to the BBA competition in advance with a year-on-year decline of 72.5%.
Although Tiguan L still occupies the top position in the fuel segment with nearly 14,000 vehicles, compared with the Model Y, which has won the single-month sales title of SUV, the fuel SUVs that are already in the throes of electrification transformation are undoubtedly worse in the face of the epidemic.
At the same time, in the medium-sized SUV market, the luxury car market has shown a significant downward trend along with the changes in first-tier cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen, which are the main sales, under the situation of epidemic prevention and control. According to the analysis of the association, dealers in Jilin, Shanghai, Shandong, Guangdong, Hebei and other places have been affected by the store and transactions, the vehicle logistics has been restricted by various places, and the loss of transportation capacity is also large.
From the sales point of view, BMW X3, Mercedes-Benz GLC sold 11137 and 10857 units respectively, down 19.9% and 29.2% year-on-year, although it maintained the list ranking compared with the Audi Q5L, but the decline in sales was inevitable.
In contrast, models such as GAC Toyota and Changan that are not affected by the supply chain maintain a good sales level in the main sales market area. In March, Highlander sold a total of 7,260 units, up 3.3% year-on-year, while Changan UNI-K sold 6,340 units, up 355.5% year-on-year.
Medium to large SUVs: High value drives change is imminent
The medium and large SUV market in March changed less than other market segments, mainly because the market demand at this level was relatively stable, and the number of products laid out by car companies at this level was small.
In terms of specific sales, in March, Tuon returned to the first place, and surpassed the second place StarWay TXL more than 3,000 vehicles, locking the hegemony of the same level of fuel SUVs. But overall, the growth of traditional fuel medium and large SUVs in the market began to be weak, last year so far the newly launched Lynk & Co 09, Volkswagen Lanjing, Ford field and other products, due to the lack of unique selling points of high-positioning products, sales have always been within 2,000 units per month, in the market have not been able to help their respective brands continue to raise brand value.
From the current trend of car companies, the large size and high-end positioning of medium and large SUVs have caused new car companies to choose this level of products as the "vanguard army" of electrification transformation. At present, the ideal ONE of medium and large SUV sales has stabilized at 10,000 monthly sales results, at the same time, the upcoming Xiaopeng G9, Cadillac LYRIQ, Q&I M7, and Self-Traveling Home NV, which are about to launch this year, are all aiming at medium and large SUV products.
On the other hand, traditional luxury brands will also strengthen the expansion of domestic medium and large SUVs this year, in addition to the BMW Brilliance X5, which was just listed in early April, the Audi Q6L produced by SAIC Audi is also expected to be unveiled within the year. It is worth mentioning that before localization, BMW X5 has occupied the top three seats in the medium and large SUV market for a long time as an import.
Obviously, with the involvement of electrification and first-line luxury brands, the medium and large SUV market that has not been alive for a long time is expected to usher in a new competitive situation. Driven by high-value SUVs, what kind of situation will the dispute between traditional fuel and electrification show is worth the market's expectations.
Attached: March SUV wholesale sales ranking
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