The march car sales charts are out. According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, due to the frequent outbreak of the epidemic, insufficient supply of chips, and rising raw material prices, passenger car sales in March were generally less than expected. From January to March 2022, production and sales of passenger cars were 5.499 million units and 5.545 million units, respectively, up 11.0% and 9.0% year-on-year, according to the Association of Passenger Vehicles. However, production of passenger cars in March was 1.881 million units and 1.864 million units, down 0.1% and 0.6% year-on-year. In this context, how are the major car companies performing?
It can be seen that in the case of the overall sales decline, new energy companies have sprung up, in addition to BYD, which has won the top sales, Tesla has also completed the redemption of the Chinese market, with a sales growth rate of a staggering 283% year-on-year. In contrast, the sales decline of models under high-end passenger car brands is more serious and faces greater pressure. Most of Changan Automobile's models, which ranked third in the sales list, are still fuel vehicles, so its production is less affected by the price increase of batteries, and most of the increase still belongs to the field of fuel vehicles.
From the perspective of bicycle sales, the former "god car" Xuanyi was surpassed by Hongguang MINIEV and Model Y, becoming the only fuel vehicle in the top six, if such a scene is told to the auto practitioners in the first two years, who listens to it and does not say that it is nonsense? Looking at this "suddenly like a spring breeze overnight, thousands of trees and pear blossoms" posture, I have to say that the development speed of new energy vehicles is far beyond the expectations of the public.
Looking at the top ten, while new energy vehicles occupy half of the list, the remaining fuel vehicle pedigree of several models is not too pure. The seventh-ranked Changan CS75 PLUS has also launched plug-in hybrid models, but the market feedback is not good and has been discontinued.
The eighth-place Camry launched a dual-engine hybrid version of the model as early as 2015, and toyota dual-engine is the earliest hybrid system in China to open the market, and has maintained a development strategy of paying equal attention to the hybrid version and the fuel version for so many years.
As for Xuanyi and Langyi, they also tried to move in the direction of new energy in the early days and launched a pure electric version of the car. Because of its high price, poor endurance, outdated design concept and a series of problems, there is no effect. It was not until November last year that Xuanyi added the e-POWER version of the model, using a range extender hybrid system, which is a relatively critical step.
The models that can squeeze into the top ten sales are basically the "housekeeper's treasures" of major car companies, and the last-ranked Leiling has nearly 20,000 monthly sales. From these ace models, it can also be seen that the current major car companies are moving towards hybridization and pure electrification. The trend of new energy has become unstoppable, and fuel vehicles as a product of the old era will eventually be gradually replaced.
In the field of fuel vehicles in the past, it is difficult to find traces of domestic cars in the top ten sales. But it is gratifying that domestic brands have not been thrown off on the track of new energy, and it can even be said that they have achieved "overtaking in curves". As a descendant of the highly well-known model Wuling Hongguang, Hongguang MINIEV even achieved the pioneering feat of selling more than the Model Y, the ace model owned by tesla pioneer Tesla. BYD, the leader of domestic new energy, has also broken through the boat, comprehensively cut off the production of fuel vehicles and focused on the new energy industry, and the market's reaction has also proved the correctness of this decision. It is hoped that independent brands can maintain this momentum and create new sales volumes.
Editor = Zhang Xiangwei
Producer = Lin Jing