The May auto market under the epidemic situation | the cover of the automotive trend

Auto-First | Sun Jinfeng

electricity

Theaters are suspended, some scenic spots are closed or restricted, restaurants are cancelled for dine-in, community nucleic acid "daily poke", some bus subway stations do not stop, 48-hour nucleic acid negative certificate, becoming the standard of this year's May Day travel... This May Day Beijing citizen is spending a special small holiday under the epidemic.

The limited life due to the epidemic also affected the Beijing auto market in May.

"Almost no one at all." This is the helplessness of the sales manager of a Geely 4 store in Asia, the largest auto trading market in Beijing. In the past, the May Day holiday was a small peak of car purchase, but this May Day "does not enter the store more than 5 batches of customers every day, and we also take half of the holiday during the May Day period." This is true of every store in Asia. ”

Known as the "barometer" of the Beijing auto market, the Car Trading Market in the Asian Games Village, the dismal operation during the May Day period also reflects the current situation of the entire Beijing Auto Market.

The Beijing Auto Market is a microcosm of the whole country. Affected by the epidemic, many places have adopted different degrees of prevention and control measures, and the passenger car market has declined significantly due to the impact of production stagnation and terminal closures. According to data from the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the retail sales of major domestic automobile manufacturers fell by 32% and 39% year-on-year on the first and second Sundays of April, respectively, and the comprehensive estimate of retail sales in April was 1.1 million units, which is expected to fall by 32% year-on-year. Judging from the sales of mainstream car companies in the first two weeks of April, the situation may be worse, and most of them are waist-stopping declines.

The only one who dares to announce sales is the new car-making forces that support growth with new energy.

During the May Day holiday, a number of new car-making forces have announced the delivery volume in April. The data shows that a number of new force car companies achieved year-on-year growth in April, but the decline was serious, and there were also huge changes in the ranking. Among them, zero-run cars surpassed all new forces to win the first place, with sales of 9,087 units in April, 9,002 xiaopeng cars and 8,813 Nezha cars. The old new force Weilai Automobile fell to 5074, and the ideal car bottomed out with only 4167, a month-on-month decline of 62.2%. The supply chain is mainly concentrated in Shanghai's Weilai and ideals, and it is expected to be dragged down.

The only traditional car company that announced its April sales is BYD, which is already "unconventional". According to the production and sales data released by BYD on May 3, the company's new energy vehicle sales exceeded 100,000 units again in April, reaching 106042 units, an increase of 313.2% year-on-year. From January to April, the cumulative sales of automobiles were 392,000 units, an increase of 387.9% year-on-year, becoming the king of the Xiaoao car market.

There is no doubt that new energy has become an important force driving the automobile market. Even in the months when the overall decline of the automobile market was serious, new energy vehicles still maintained rapid growth. However, problems such as the price increase of chips and batteries and the shortage of parts and components are still the biggest obstacles to the development of new energy.

During the May Day period, at least 8 new energy brands, including Jihu, Lynk & Co, SAIC Roewe, Tianji, JiKr, etc., announced price increases ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of yuan.

On May 1, Lynk & Co officially announced that the price of its PEV plug-in hybrid models on sale was raised, and the adjusted models included Lynk & Co 01 PHEV, Lynk & Co 05 PHEV, Lynk & Co 06 PHEV, and Lynk & Co 09 PHEV, an increase of 2,000-4,000 yuan.

On the same day as Lynk & Co, the Volkswagen JAC Sihao E10X raised the price of the four-leaf clover and the full sky star model, both of which increased by 1,000 yuan.

SAIC Roewe, which has already predicted price increases, released the news that the price of the RX5 eMAX PHEV Fearless Premium Edition, Ei5 and i6MAX EV models was adjusted by 2,000 yuan on May 1. At the same time, SAIC Feifan Automobile also announced a price increase, and its ER6 and MARVEL R models rose by 3,000-10,000 yuan.

Jihu Auto, which originally planned to adjust the price on May 1, gritted its back teeth and announced that it could hold out for another 16 days, postponing the price increase to May 16. It was also announced that from 0:00 on May 16, 2022, the proposed retail price of the Alpha T and Alpha S part of the on-sale model will be increased by 5400 yuan.

In addition to independent brands, joint venture brand electric vehicles have also begun to adjust prices. Ford officially announced that due to the sharp rise in automobile manufacturing and raw material costs, the price of some of its Mustang Mach-E models will increase by 0.7 million yuan to 20,000 yuan, and the new price will be implemented from May 5.

In the environment of continuous rise in raw material prices in the automotive industry, the price increase of new energy vehicles has become a common phenomenon. The number of new energy vehicle brands that previously announced price increases has reached nearly 20, involving more than 50 models. In fact, the cost of fuel vehicles is also increasing, but traditional car companies are standing up, and Mercedes-Benz and BMW, which have been unable to stand up, have previously announced the news of the price increase of their fuel vehicles.

Under the epidemic, the cost of automobile raw materials and transportation are increasing, and price increases have become a major trend. Industry insiders judge that if the epidemic situation still does not get better, price increases will become the main theme of this year's car market, and it will also become the biggest pressure for the car market to achieve sales targets this year.

In order to encourage automobile consumption, favorable policies of the state and local governments have also been frequently introduced, the most active of which is Guangdong Province, which not only increases the car purchase indicators but also gives preferential treatment to car purchases.

Before May Day, the Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission issued the "Announcement on Subsidies for the Purchase of New Energy Vehicles", from May 1 to June 30, individual consumers in the province to buy "Guangdong Province Car Trade-in Special Action" within the scope of the promotion of new energy vehicles can receive subsidies of 8,000 yuan / car. There are a total of 45 new energy passenger cars in the list of promoted models, covering brands including BYD, Xiaopeng Motors, Dongfeng Nissan, Dongfeng Honda, GUANGC Honda, ANDC AEG.

The General Office of the People's Government of Guangdong Province also issued the "Several Measures for Further Promoting Consumption in Guangdong Province", and from May to June this year, on the basis of the original, Guangzhou increased 30,000 car purchase indicators and Shenzhen increased 10,000 car purchase indicators.

Shenyang, which was greatly affected by the epidemic, also launched a policy to encourage automobile consumption during the May Day period. In the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting Automobile Consumption" jointly issued by the Shenyang Municipal Bureau of Commerce and the Municipal Finance Bureau, it is proposed that the Shenyang Municipal Government invest 100 million yuan to issue automobile consumption subsidies to individual consumers who buy cars in Shenyang, and encourage automobile scrapping and rural automobile consumption.

In fact, the government's policy of stimulating automobile consumption has been implemented since this year, and before Guangdong Province and Shenyang City, Hefei, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places have introduced a wave of policies to encourage automobile consumption. At the national level, policies such as canceling the national restriction on the relocation of used cars, increasing the incremental indicators of automobiles, and relaxing the qualification restrictions of car buyers have been introduced.

Despite the frequent emergence of favorable policies, from the current point of view, the automobile industry is still facing great pressure. Shanghai, Jilin, Changchun and other places have resumed work and restarted, and there may be no shutdown of OEMs in May. However, the uncertainty of the follow-up of the epidemic is still very large, coupled with the rise in raw material prices, chip supply shortages and other problems, the complete recovery of the automobile market may at least "sit on the sidelines" and face many tests.

According to the latest forecast of the China Automobile Association, the overall decline in the automobile market in April was about 46%, and the sharp decline in april further expanded the overall decline of the automobile market. The data shows that the overall car market fell by 12% in the first four months of this year due to the sharp decline in sales in April. (Some of the pictures are from the Internet)