According to the data released by the Federation of Passenger Vehicles, the retail sales of the narrow passenger car market in April 2022 were 1.042 million units, down 35.5% year-on-year, down 34.0% month-on-month, and the retail sales growth rate in April was at a record level in the month. Cumulative retail sales from January to April totaled 5.957 million units, down 11.9% y/y and 800,000 units year-on-year. In terms of manufacturer sales, BYD has sprung up and won the champion of all-brand sales in the Chinese market.
From the output analysis of the following figure, it can be seen that in April 2022, a total of 969,000 special passenger cars were produced, down 41.1% year-on-year, while the wholesale volume of the above figure shows that the total wholesale of narrow passenger cars in April was 946,000 units, while the market retail sales were 1.042 million units, and the retail volume was already greater than the wholesale and production volume of nearly 100,000 units, indicating that the sharp decline in retail sales was mainly affected by production capacity, and the main reason was that due to the impact of the epidemic in Shanghai, Jilin and other places, a large number of auto parts system suppliers could not produce and supply in time. As a result, the production of various automobile manufacturers across the country has been limited, and the production volume has fallen sharply, affecting terminal sales.
From the following sales trend chart of the last 6 years of 2017-2022, it can be seen that the overall trend in 2022 is not particularly ideal, and the sales performance in April has pulled the trend to the lowest point, even lower than the sales value in the first year of the epidemic in 2020, which is the lowest value in recent years.
In April 2022, the retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 282,000 units, an increase of 78.4% year-on-year and a decrease of 36.5% month-on-month, different from the trend in April of the calendar year, mainly affected by the epidemic; the domestic retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles in January-April were 1.352 million units, an increase of 128.4% year-on-year.
From the following 2017-2022 new energy market sales trend chart in the past 6 years, it can be seen that this year's new energy vehicles continue to open high And the trend is very fierce, although the sales volume in April fell sharply month-on-month, but it is still better than the same period in previous years, indicating that the impact of the epidemic on new energy vehicles is much smaller than that of fuel vehicles.
The ranking of automakers in April 2022 is very different from that of the previous month, mainly because production determines sales, and automakers whose production bases are in epidemic areas such as the Yangtze River Delta are particularly affected. Specific rankings: BYD won the all-brand sales championship for the first time with monthly sales of 105,000 units year-on-year, and was the only manufacturer with sales growth, thanks to BYD's production bases in Shenzhen, Xi'an, Changsha and other places, not affected by the epidemic; former champion FAW-Volkswagen sales in April 81,000 fell 49.2% year-on-year, close to "waist chopping" to retreat to the second place; GAC Toyota won the third place for the first time with monthly sales of 64,000 year-on-year decline of 7.3%; and SAIC Volkswagen in Shanghai, Saic-GM's sales have almost all "slashed" down more than 50%.
Conclusion: The automobile market in April has seen a sharp decline in production, wholesale volume and sales due to the epidemic, but with the improvement of the domestic epidemic situation and the resumption of work and production of suppliers in Shanghai, the automobile market will come out of the trough, and I believe that sales in May will be better!