On May 10, the Association released the april 2022 passenger car sales data, which showed that the retail sales of the passenger car market in April 2022 reached 1.042 million units, down 35.5% year-on-year and 34.0% month-on-month. From January to April, the cumulative retail sales of 5.957 million units decreased by 11.9% year-on-year and 800,000 units year-on-year, of which the 570,000 units in April were more significant.
In April, the new crown epidemic spread sporadically throughout the country, 29 provinces across the country reported confirmed cases or asymptomatic infected people in April, and dealers 4S store customers in Shanghai, Jilin, Shandong, Guangdong, Hebei and other places were affected by their stores and transactions. Retail sales fell more sharply in April, and the comparable monthly growth rate of the year-on-year growth value is the 40% year-on-year decline in retail sales in March 2020.
Chinese brand retail sales of 480,000 vehicles in April, down 19% year-on-year and 37% month-on-month. The domestic retail share of Chinese brands in April was 46.4%, an increase of 9.6 percentage points year-on-year, and the cumulative share from January to April was 46%, an increase of 8.3 percentage points compared with the same period in 2021. The wholesale market share of Chinese brands in April was 57.7%, an increase of 16.2 percentage points over the same period last year, and the cumulative share from January to April was 48%, an increase of 6.7 percentage points compared with the same period in 2021. The new energy market has achieved significant increases, the performance of leading enterprises has been excellent, and the brand share of traditional car companies such as BYD Automobile, Geely Automobile, Changan Automobile and Chery Automobile has increased significantly.
Mainstream overseas brand retail sales of 450,000 units in April, down 42% year-on-year and 24% month-on-month. The retail share of Japanese brands in April was 24.5%, down 0.5 percentage points year-on-year. The share of Ashkenazi brands was 19.4%, down 5.2 percentage points year-on-year. The retail share of the US market reached 6.4%, down 3.1 percentage points year-on-year. The legal share of DPCA and other companies increased by 0.4 percentage points.
In April, the wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 280,000 units, an increase of 50.1% year-on-year, down 38.5% month-on-month, and the decline was abnormal, and the development of new energy was also affected and impacted by the current epidemic. From January to April, the wholesale number of new energy passenger cars was 1.469 million units, an increase of 119.0% year-on-year. Retail sales of new energy passenger cars reached 282,000 units in April, up 78.4% year-on-year and down 36.5% month-on-month, different from the trend in April of the calendar year. From January to April, domestic retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles were 1.352 million units, up 128.4% year-on-year.
In terms of production, passenger car production in April was 969,000 units, down 41.1% year-on-year and 46.8% month-on-month. Among them, the production of luxury brands fell by 57% year-on-year and 43% month-on-month; the production of joint venture brands fell by 56% year-on-year and 58% month-on-month; and the production of independent brands fell by 20% year-on-year and 38% month-on-month.
Affected by the epidemic, the shortage of imported parts and components, the suppliers of domestic parts and components systems involved in the Yangtze River Delta region cannot supply in time, and some even completely stop work and operation, coupled with the reduction of logistics efficiency and uncontrollable transportation time, resulting in prominent production problems. In April, the production of the five major car companies in Shanghai fell by 75% compared with March, the production of the joint venture main car companies in Changchun fell by 54%, and the overall decline in other regions was 38%, and the national radiation effect of the parts system in Shanghai was highlighted.
In terms of inventory, the rapid replenishment of manufacturers' inventories in the fourth quarter of 2021 laid the foundation for the strong performance of wholesale in January-April this year. At the end of the quarter, factors led to the characteristics of increasing inventory in April, decomposition, April manufacturer inventory increased by 20,000 vehicles month-on-month, January to April cumulative decline of 60,000 vehicles, while january to April 2021 manufacturer inventory fell by 200,000 vehicles, this year's manufacturer inventory improvement is greater. Channel inventory in April fell by 190,000 units month-on-month, and channel inventory fell by 80,000 units in January-April, a strong contrast from the 440,000 units in January-April 2021, driving the wholesale growth rate of 4.5% in January-April this year, which was significantly higher than the wholesale data highlight of the 11.9% decline in retail growth.
At present, dealer inventory is at a medium and high level, but due to insufficient production under the epidemic, the proportion of inventory in transit has risen, and the production shortage of some hot-selling models has led to a mismatch between the supply and demand structure and the difficulty of adjustment; the lack of retail increments of high-selling models has also made the inventory coefficient artificially high. Many dealers' inventory contains "vehicles in transit", and if they can't pay the car, they can't pay back, which not only can't meet the needs of customers to add orders, but also easily lead to customers returning. The current inventory status has aggravated the financial difficulties of the dealer side, and the problem of alleviating difficulties is more prominent.
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