Written by | Song Yuting
In the past ten years, the car market has achieved good results through preferential purchase tax incentives, energy-saving subsidies, automobiles going to the countryside, old for new and other policy incentives, and car companies have gradually found a balance between product strength and cost performance. In recent years, the new four transformations have improved the diversified layout of the industry, given consumers more room for choice, and accelerated the formation of a healthy ecology in which good currency in the Chinese auto market drives out bad money.
At the same time, in the face of multiple challenges such as the epidemic, the shortage of some parts and components, the rise in raw material prices and consumption upgrades, China's auto market is facing many obstacles, and the upward momentum is gradually slowing down, and finally entering the stock market.
The car market, which was difficult to end with an increase in 2021, was dragged back by the epidemic at the beginning of 2022, and the terminal sales of China's passenger car market in the first quarter were only 4.89 million units, down 9.75% year-on-year, and the downward trend expanded month by month, respectively, -4.31%, -11.12%, -16.07%.
Not only that, the results of the "China Auto Dealer Inventory Early Warning Index" released by the China Automobile Dealers Association show that the inventory warning index of Chinese auto dealers in March 2022 was 63.6%, up 8.1 percentage points year-on-year and 7.5 percentage points month-on-month, and the inventory early warning index was above the boom-bust line. Among them, the epidemic in March rebounded in many places, and automobile production, sales, consumption and travel were greatly affected, resulting in the overall market in a slump range.
What is more pessimistic is that due to the continuity of the epidemic in Shanghai and other places, the shortage of key components such as chips, etc., the industry basically predicts that the Chinese car market will continue to be under pressure in the second quarter, and the terminal sales of passenger cars are expected to fall below 20 million units throughout the year.
The China Automobile Dealers Association suggests that dealers should rationally estimate the actual market demand and reasonably control the inventory level according to the actual situation.
However, it is worth noting that under the increasingly fierce competition in the automobile market, it has also spawned a benign improvement in the quality and quantity of automotive products, as well as the acceleration of industrial change.
According to the latest production and sales data released by the Association of Passenger Vehicles, the retail sales of the passenger car market reached 1.579 million units in March, down 10.5% year-on-year and 25.6% month-on-month.
Among them, in the top ten list of manufacturers' sales in March, six car companies fell by more than 40%, of which the highest decline was SAIC-GM, followed by FAW-Volkswagen, while the independent brands Changan Automobile, BYD and Geely Automobile showed a growth trend again.
Not only that, under the pressure of the new energy vehicle market can continue to maintain a rapid growth trend, in March new energy passenger car retail sales reached 445,000 units, an increase of 137.6% year-on-year, an increase of 63.1% month-on-month, better than the march trend of the calendar year.
Under the trend of continuous improvement of the new energy automobile industry, BYD sold 105,000 new energy vehicles in March, an increase of 333.1% year-on-year; the cumulative sales volume in the first quarter exceeded 286,000 units, an increase of 423.0% year-on-year. Among them, as of March, the cumulative sales of the BYDHan family exceeded 190,000 units, ranking first among medium and large sedans of Chinese brands; in March, DM plug-in sales of 50,674 units, an increase of 615.2% year-on-year.
Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD, said that if ten years ago, the development of new energy vehicles was mainly driven by policies; three or five years ago, the development of the industry relied on policies and markets "double-driven", then today, it has been transformed into market-driven, which is the direct reason for the increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles. The Chinese people are supporting new energy vehicles with practical actions.
Nowadays, new energy vehicles have become a new force to promote the transformation of mainland automobiles in the pressure. Among them, the sales performance of independent brands has narrowed significantly compared with that of joint venture brands, coupled with the release of the consumption potential of new energy vehicles, the competitive advantages of independent brands have gradually emerged, and the mainland automobile market has undergone regenerative changes. 【iDailycar】