List of sales of 30 car companies in May: BYD sold 240,000 yuan, and Zero Run returned to the 10,000-unit camp
Recently, major car companies have successively announced sales data for May. From the results point of view, the performance of car companies in May is generally better than the previous month, and even some car companies have doubled up, compared with the same period last year is also positive growth, since the beginning of this year sales momentum is better BYD and ideal, May growth rate is still top.
The "Matthew effect" of new forces is prominent, and the ideal "appetite" is gradually growing
In May, the delivery of new automakers showed the "Matthew effect". The ideal delivery volume has rushed to 28,000+, still the absolute "big brother", Nezha continues to rise, holding the second seat, zero run back to the 10,000 vehicle camp, but Xiaopeng and NIO growth is weak, still hovering at the level of monthly sales of six or seven thousand vehicles.
Specifically, 28,277 new vehicles were delivered in May, up 146% from the same period last year. This is the third consecutive month in which deliveries exceeded 20,000 units. From January to May this year, the cumulative delivery volume of ideal vehicles exceeded 100,000 units, reaching 106,542 units, far ahead of other emerging automakers.
The ideal L7 significantly accelerates the improvement of the ideal delivery volume. Since the start of deliveries in early March, the ideal L7 quickly exceeded 10,000 units in April, becoming the fourth model of ideal to deliver more than 10,000 units in a single month, and the model again exceeded 10,000 in May.
Based on the strong performance of the L7, L8 and L9 models, the ideal "appetite" is obviously increasing. In the previous first-quarter earnings call, Li Xiang, founder of Li Auto, said that he would strive to achieve the goal of delivering 30,000 vehicles a month in June this year. A few days ago, Li Xiang set a new goal on social platforms, that is, "ideal L7, L8, L9 three cars, challenge 40,000 units / month in 2023." ”
Image source: Li Xiang Weibo screenshot
Nezha continued to hold steady in the 10,000-unit camp, delivering 13,029 new vehicles in May, up 18% year-on-year. The delivery volume of the two series of models of Nezha U and Nezha V totaled 9,101 units, accounting for nearly 70%, but lower than the 77.15% in the previous month.
This is associated with the rise in Nezha GT deliveries. The Nezha GT, which was launched at the Shanghai Auto Show, delivered 295 units in April and 1,716 units in May, a significant increase. A few days ago, Daniel Zhang, CEO of United Motors, said in a statement that the Nezha GT is expected to lead significantly in the number of deliveries in the sports car segment, and strive to achieve a larger "far ahead" in June.
Zerorun finally returned to the level of 10,000 units, delivering 12,058 new vehicles in May, a year-on-year increase of nearly 20% and a month-on-month increase of more than 38%. This performance is very rare, after all, the last time Zerorun exceeded 10,000 was in September last year, and even in January this year, it experienced a trough of only 1,139 deliveries.
Now it has broken through 10,000 again, and the launch of the Leap C11 extended version may be not unrelated, the model began delivery on March 29, according to relevant sources, after the delivery of the Leap C11 Extended Range, the order sales of a single model of C11 exceeded 10,000 a month.
According to the plan, the C01 extended version is expected to be delivered in July and August. In the second half of the year, Zerorun will release the first B series product, and starting from the B series product, it will release and deliver both the extended range version and the pure electric version. The inclusion of the extended range version is expected to contribute to continued sales growth.
NIO and Xpeng still did not perform well, especially NIO, which delivered 6,155 new vehicles in May, both down from the previous month. However, according to the official statement, with the official delivery of the second-generation technology platform model led by the new ES6, the intergenerational switch of NIO's products is about to end, and the overall sales in the second half of the year will be effectively boosted, and the company will fully enter the acceleration stage.
In the recent first quarter earnings call, NIO founder, chairman and CEO Li Bin said that the new ES6 market is very hot, the current lock order has reached expectations, and the conversion rate after the test drive has reached the highest ever. After ramping up production in June, the all-new ES6 is expected to reach monthly sales of 10,000 units in July. As a result, the second-generation technology platform model is expected to enable NIO to achieve its goal of selling an average of 20,000 units per month.
Of course, this flag may be inseparable from its "price reduction" initiative. On June 12, NIO announced that it would adjust the price of all new cars and the rights of the first owner. By dividing the free battery swap interest from the vehicle price to achieve price reduction, NIO's starting price will drop to about 230,000 yuan after the equity adjustment, which may help boost sales.
Image source: NIO
Qianjie's performance rebounded, with 5,629 new vehicles delivered in May, up 22.7% month-on-month, and achieving an increase of more than 20% for the second consecutive month. Looking back at January to April this year, the delivery volume was 4,475 units, 3,505 units, 3,679 units, and 4,584 units, respectively, although the delivery in May has rebounded, but there is still a sharp contrast with last year's delivery level of more than 10,000 units, I don't know whether the M5 intelligent driving version of the upcoming multi-city delivery can further change the situation.
The old independent betting on new brands, Aion, Denza and so on performed well
In May, the share of independent brands rose again. According to data from the Passenger Association, self-owned brand retail sales in May were 870,000 units, up 41% year-on-year and 11% month-on-month, and the share of domestic retail sales of own-brand was 50.3%, up 4 percentage points year-on-year. In 2023, the cumulative share of independent brands will be 50%, an increase of 3.5 percentage points compared with the same period in 2022.
Among them, BYD naturally occupies a considerable weight. In May, BYD's sales reached 240,200 units, compared with 114,900 units in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of 108.99%, and this year's cumulative sales have exceeded 1 million units, a year-on-year increase of 95.68%.
Other independent brands in this statistic are not lagging behind, but the growth rate is high and low. For example, SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle sold 73,687 units in May, a year-on-year increase of 4.52%; GAC Passenger Vehicle sold 34,093 units in May, up 16% y/y. Changan's own brand sales in May were 163,311 units, a year-on-year increase of 37.62%; Chery Automobile's May sales were 103,160 units, up 61.2% y/y.
Focusing on the old independent car companies, another obvious phenomenon is that in May this year, the sales of new energy brands incubated by car companies performed well.
For example, BYD's Denza sold 11,005 units in May and sold 55,496 units. Since its delivery in October last year, Denza D's sales volume in September has continued to rise, and as of May, it has exceeded 10,000 monthly sales for three consecutive months. And according to Denza reveal, the unit price of Denza D9 exceeded 420,000 yuan. Up to now, Denza D9 hot selling orders have exceeded 80,000.
Image source: Screenshot of the official poster of Denza Automobile
Another example is GAC's Aion, which sold 45,003 units in May, a year-on-year increase of 114%. This is the third consecutive month this year that Aion's monthly sales exceeded 40,000 vehicles, and it continues to hit a record high.
There is also Geely's Geely's Geely's Geely's delivery performance has continued to improve this year, with a total of 8,678 units delivered in May, an increase of 7.1% month-on-month. and Changan's Deep Blue, which delivered 7,021 units of the Deep Blue SL03 in May. So far, the cumulative delivery of the navy SL03 has approached 60,000 units.
Once upon a time, multi-brand and multi-series became the tacit choice of independent car companies to layout the new energy field, and many independent car companies launched multi-echelon new energy products for different prices and different audiences. Today, the multi-brand strategy continues to deepen.
Recently, BYD officially announced that its professional personalized brand was officially named "Equation Leopard", which is the fifth brand in the BYD brand matrix after Dynasty, Ocean, Denza and Yangwang. After forming such a brand matrix, BYD will cover different market segments such as home, luxury, personality, and Volkswagen, almost comprehensively covering the mainstream demand for new energy vehicles. In other words, no matter how you choose, it seems that you can't bypass a BYD.
In February this year, Geely released a new mid-to-high-end new energy series of the Geely brand, "Geely Galaxy". Previously, Geely had a polar krypton brand focusing on pure electric intelligent tracks of more than 300,000 yuan in the field of new energy, and a pure electric geometry brand focusing on the market below 150,000 yuan, but in the new energy range of 150,000-300,000 yuan, Geely's layout is not clear enough, and Geely Galaxy is to fill this gap.
Geely Galaxy exclusive stores; Image source: Geely
Geely values the Galaxy series. According to the plan, Geely Galaxy will launch 7 products in the next two years, and recently, Geely announced that 225 Geely Galaxy exclusive stores across the country will open simultaneously, and it is expected that "the channel scale of 650-700 exclusive stores nationwide will be achieved within this year." ”
It is not difficult to understand that the "multi-brand" of independent car companies mainly comes from the brand upward and consumer buyers' demand for differentiation and personalization, and the benign development route of multi-brand is expected to help enterprises better define their brand image and attributes in the market segment and attract more group target customers.
Some people believe that as long as car companies are not blind when launching "sub-brands" and the models of each sub-brand are arranged in an orderly manner, many sub-brands can achieve a virtuous circle. Of course, it cannot be ignored that there is also mutual competition between the sub-brands set up by many car companies and the lack of clear product positioning, and it is necessary to be vigilant against the problem of "internal consumption".
The joint venture has recovered to varying degrees, and "self-help" has achieved results
In May, the joint venture brands picked up to varying degrees, SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Changan Ford, Guangqi Honda, Dongfeng Honda both rose year-on-month, Guangqi Honda even increased by more than 1 times month-on-month, Changan Mazda, GAC Toyota, Dongfeng Nissan although it fell year-on-year, but rose month-on-month, Changan Mazda even rose by 70%.
The joint venture's "self-help" measures seem to have more or less worked, including accelerating the layout of electrified products and "optimizing" the pricing of new vehicles.
According to the data, GAC Toyota sold 73,600 units in May, a year-on-year decline, but considering last year's high base, it is still a good performance, and according to GAC Toyota's retail sales data, it sold a total of 77,534 new vehicles in May, an increase of 10.7% over the same period last year. It is worth noting that its electrified models sold 22,973 units in May, accounting for 30%.
Guangqi Honda's sales in May doubled to 54,408 units, up 15.5% y/y. Although the proportion of electrified products is not as large as that of GAC Toyota, it has increased by more than 50%, which can be said to be a great improvement. And in May this year, the new Accord e:PHEV plug-in hybrid sedan was launched, and it is reported that with the launch of the new model, Guangqi Honda's hybrid matrix will have 6 models, and the second new pure electric model will also be released early next year. This means that Guangqi Honda will make all-round efforts in the field of new energy.
New Accord; Image source: Guangqi Honda
While the number of products is increasing, joint venture automakers are becoming more and more "low-profile" in pricing new vehicles. The new Accord mentioned above focuses on "the same price of oil and electricity", and the new Buick LaCrosse launched in May this year, the price of the entry-level model has been reduced by nearly 40,000 yuan, and Cadillac's new XT4 is also about 3-80,000 yuan cheaper than the old model.
In addition to the price reduction of facelifted models, Buick's first pure electric vehicle Electra E5 launched in April this year, starting at only 208,900 yuan, and Dongfeng Nissan super-hybrid drive X-Jun launched a total of two models in May, with official guidance prices of 189,900 yuan and 199,900 yuan, which is said to have achieved "the same price for hybrid and fuel, and the same price for four-wheel drive and two-wheel drive".
According to this trend, as the competition in the car market intensifies, there will inevitably be more joint venture brands to put down their positions to compete for market share. It is foreseeable that in the short term, price measures can bring a certain sales boost, but as Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Passenger Association, said, in the long run, joint venture brands still need to accelerate the pace of electrification and intelligence to keep up with independent brands.
In May this year, Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, responded to the decline in sales of Changan Automobile's Changan Mazda and Changan Ford at the 2022 annual results briefing that the joint venture brand has indeed encountered some challenges.
According to him, in the past year, Changan has discussed strategic cooperation with Ford and Mazda, made bold explorations on cooperation models and corporate governance, and reached a strategic consensus. In the future, the shareholders will not only export products, technologies and platforms to the joint venture, but also co-create new brands. According to the plan, Changan Ford's new electric vehicle will be launched in the market in 2024; Changan Mazda's new electric vehicle products will also be launched in 2024.
Of course, independent car companies cannot relax. As Feng Xingya, general manager of GAC Group at this year's Shanghai Auto Show, said: "Our own brands have achieved a temporary lead, and we must not be proud to maintain this advantage." When everyone does not realize it, you are the first mover and taste the dividends of the first mover, but when everyone realizes that they should do this, that is when they really fight for strength and system ability. ”