Due to the multi-point shutdown of the supply chain caused by the new crown epidemic at home and abroad, and the impact of the normalization of "lack of core" on electric vehicles compared with fuel vehicles, the overall sales volume of China's electric vehicle consumer market in the first quarter was significantly lower than expected. At the same time, the emergence of some "dark horse" players has already opened another round of stock market share reshuffle in 2022.
Compared with the more systematic and more detailed division of the brand camp in the fuel vehicle market, we believe that the current Chinese electric vehicle consumption market can be roughly divided into luxury joint venture brands (the price range is higher, and does not include Tesla), new and old independent brands (the price range is closer to the people, and includes new car-making brands), and Tesla according to the three dimensions of brand traceability, price range and sales performance.
Admittedly, this is a rather subjective and general division. Once we will also use "traditional independent brands" and "new car-making brands" to try to divide the mature veterans and emerging stars of electric vehicles growing up in China, and the once international big brands have also planned to block Tesla's "curve overtaking", and the former Tesla has not reached the point where it can match the sales performance of a camp with its own strength. And these "onces", relying on the rapid change of the electric market, were completely subverted in just a few years.
Looking back at the first quarter of 2022, due to the multi-point shutdown of the supply chain caused by the new crown epidemic at home and abroad, and the impact of the normalization of "lack of core" on electric vehicles compared with fuel vehicles, the overall sales volume of China's electric vehicle consumer market is significantly lower than expected. What is the specific performance of each camp? Let's find out today.
tesla
As a pioneer in the electric era of building gigafactories in many parts of the world, Tesla's first-quarter sales continue to be envied by its peers with staggering actual figures and year-on-year growth.
In the first quarter of 2022, Tesla delivered 310048 new cars worldwide. A total of 14,724 units were delivered for Model S and Model X, and 295324 units were delivered for Model 3 and Model Y. Compared with the sales of 184,800 units in the same period of 2021, 125248 more units were sold in 2022, with sales increasing by more than 67% year-on-year.
Among them, Tesla China contributed nearly 60% of the sales volume to the global market with more than 182174 units in the first quarter.
January 2022 59,845 units
February 2022 56,515 units
March 2022 65,814 units
While harvesting such staggering sales figures, Tesla's China factory also faced two shutdowns in the first quarter. As the epidemic in Shanghai worsened in the second quarter, soaring raw material prices and increasingly unstable upstream supply chain reliability will continue to threaten Tesla China and even Tesla's overall performance in the second quarter sales data. Even so, we still can't deny that tesla's sales data alone can easily match, or even easily surpass, the sales performance of an entire electric vehicle camp.
Luxury joint venture brand
In the statistical phase of the first quarter of 2022, we only refer to players who are in this camp and have completed the initial model system construction, that is, electric vehicle manufacturers including Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen ID, Audi e-tron, Porsche), Mercedes-Benz, BMW, etc.
During this period, the Volkswagen Group's global vehicle sales fell by about 21.9% year-on-year to 1,898,300 units. However, its electric vehicle sales showed 65% but increased year-on-year, reaching 99,100 units. Among them, the sales of electric vehicles in the first quarter of the Chinese market were 28,800 units, accounting for about 29% of the total global sales, an increase of 360% year-on-year.
Among the 28,800 electric models sold in the Chinese market are the Volkswagen ID family, the Audi e-tron family, and the Porsche Taycan model. As a large-scale shared platform and a clustered production model of synchronous technology, many electric "contacts" of the Volkswagen Group have largely realized the complementary advantages of different price ranges and different electric vehicle consumer groups.
Also experiencing a decline in sales of all models is the Mercedes-Benz brand. In the first quarter of 2022, Mercedes-Benz achieved a total sales volume of 501,600 units in the series, down about 15% year-on-year. However, focusing on the field of electric vehicles, global electric vehicle sales showed a rapid growth rate of 210%, reaching a sales figure of 21,900 units.
At present, the Mercedes-Benz pure electric family with EQA, EQB, EQC, EQE, EQS and EQS SUV as the sequence will show greater sales growth potential in the next few quarters of 2022 with the most comprehensive pure electric product matrix among luxury brands at this stage.
Similar to the Mercedes-Benz brand, the BMW Group sold 596907 units in the first quarter of 2022, down 9.2% year-on-year. Its sales figures for all-electric vehicle models were about 35,300 units, an increase of 207.9% year-on-year.
Consistent with the Mercedes-Benz brand, the BMW brand has not yet announced the sales figures of pure electric vehicles in the first quarter of the Chinese market, but after the main pure electric product iX3, and new models such as i3, i4, i7, iX and other new models have appeared, in the next few months, the BMW brand will also usher in a new round of sales growth in the field of electric vehicles.
New and old independent brands
Compared with the luxury joint venture brand of "away combat" in China, the pure electric camp composed of new and old independent brands can be described as having great potential. Whether it is the traditional giants such as Geely and BYD that have successfully transformed into electrification, as well as the old generation of new car-making forces represented by "Wei Xiaoli", or the new generation of car-making forces such as Hechuang and Gaohe, the mainstream consumers in China's pure electric consumer market have long been firmly locked in the independent camp composed of these brands.
The problem we are facing is that in this stock market, the real-time proportion of new and old players has changed.
As the well-deserved "first chair" of this camp, BYD New Energy (including hybrid models) sold 282686 units in the first quarter of 2022. SAIC-GM-Wuling ranked second with sales of 105227 units. Whether it is relying on the product matrix or relying on the creation of "blockbusters" (Wuling Hongguang MINI EV) for sales sprints, these two sales strategies have been proven to have the ability and strength to create top sales in China's electric vehicle consumer market.
It is worth mentioning that Weilai Automobile, which was originally ranked first in the top three of the new forces of "Wei Xiaoli", showed a trend of falling behind in the first quarter of 2022. 25768 units, such data makes Weilai Automobile the first in the bottom three of "Wei Xiaoli", and has been surpassed by many independent brands, including Nezha.
Compared with the data of Nio Automobile, Xiaopeng and Ideal both ranked at the forefront of the new forces of the first generation of car manufacturing with sales data of more than 30,000 units. Both are already available, or are about to launch new models, which will also help the brand achieve sales growth in the second to fourth quarters of 2022.
As Nezha Automobile, which officially surpassed Weilai Automobile in the first quarter of 2022 and achieved rapid sales of 30,152 models, in the step-by-step construction of the product matrix with Nezha U, Nezha V, and the upcoming Nezha S models, its consumer reputation construction and cost-effective strength have enabled this young brand that once focused on the entry-level market to achieve a hierarchical increase in brand power while jumping in sales.
As one of the most representative independent "dark horses" in the first quarter, Hechuang Automobile has become a well-deserved sales star in the new forces of second-generation car manufacturing with more than 3,000 orders and 1,689 units of actual delivery in March with more than 3,000 orders and 1,689 units of actual delivery in March. On April 8, the 2022 Hechuang Z03 was officially launched, and its 510km or 620km cruising range, the large space brought by the 2750mm leapfrog ultra-long wheelbase, and a number of practical configurations and intelligent technology upgrades such as SPA remote control parking function, 540° fully transparent HD parking image, etc., will help this model, as well as the new sales growth of Hechuang Automobile in 2022.