In the first half of the year, the car market chaos: unprecedented huge subsidies The differentiation of new energy brands intensified

With the arrival of July, as various car companies announce their sales in June, the results of the semi-annual examination of the car market are being released.

In the first half of 2023, China's auto market has undergone major changes, and the price war and the same price of oil and electricity have profoundly affected the trend of market development.

In the first half of the year, China's auto market experienced an unprecedented price reduction subsidy war. According to incomplete statistics, in this "war", more than 40 automobile brands have successively launched policies such as price reductions, high subsidies for government and enterprises, and large concessions to terminals, covering hundreds of models such as pure electric, plug-in hybrid, and fuel vehicles, with prices ranging from 50,000 to 500,000 yuan, with the highest discount exceeding 100,000 yuan.

It is under such an unprecedented huge subsidy that the situation of car purchases has not improved. From March 1 to 26, the passenger car market retailed 1.021 million units, down 1% year-on-year and 17% month-on-month, according to data from the Passenger Association of China.

The huge subsidies not only failed to change the volume, but also caused panic among consumers, and it was not until May and June that they gradually recovered their vitality. In the view of the China Automobile Dealers Association, the car market is in a state of moderate recovery. Stimulated by favorable factors such as the intensive release of new cars by car companies, the May Day and Dragon Boat Festival holidays, and the sending of new energy vehicles to the countryside, the demand for automobile consumption has been further accelerated, and the transaction situation has improved.

According to data from the China Passenger Association Association, from June 1 to 30, 2023, the passenger car market retailed 1.896 million units, down 2% year-on-year and up 9% month-on-month. Since the beginning of this year, the cumulative retail sales have reached 9.528 million units, a year-on-year increase of 3%; Passenger car manufacturers nationwide sold 2.23 million units, up 2% y/y and 11% m/m. Since the beginning of this year, the total number of units sold has been 11.062 million units, a year-on-year increase of 9%.

Specific to the performance of each subdivided brand, there is a situation where the head brand is too strong, the new energy vehicle brand is differentiated, and the traditional independent brand has initially reaped the fruit. Since some brands have not yet announced their sales, the author selects several representative brands here to review, so that everyone has a more direct understanding of the car market.

The head brand is a must

In the first half of this year, BYD's sales (including Denza units) reached 1.25 million units, with an average monthly sales of 208,000 units. BYD's goal for this year is 3 million vehicles, with a 41.9% achievement rate in the first half of the year. In order to achieve the annual target, the average monthly sales in the second half of the year must reach more than 290,000 units. With BYD's current market performance, it should not be difficult to achieve this goal.

BYD continued to perform in the first half of the year, new technologies, new brands, and new products continued to appear, and a number of its new cars have successively completed facelifts and launches, especially Yadi's official announcement of two new sub-brands Yangwang and Fangcheng Leopard, the first product Yangwang U8 pre-priced 1.098 million yuan, benchmarking million-level products. Fangcheng Leopard is positioned as a professional personalized brand, and the price will be comparable to luxury car brands such as BBA, priced between 400,000-600,000, which has promoted the rapid development of its high-end brand.

Tesla, as the initiator of the 2023 car market price war, sold a total of 889,000 vehicles in the first half of the year, and this year's sales target is 1.8 million vehicles, with a achievement rate of 49.4%.

Specifically, Tesla delivered 422875 vehicles in the first quarter and 466,140 vehicles in the second quarter, which is in a sequential growth trend. Among them, the sales volume in the Chinese market in the half of the year was 476539 units, accounting for 53.6%.

Tesla's excellent market performance is inseparable from the many price cuts since the beginning of the year, and with the launch of the Model 3 in the second half of the year, Tesla is likely to exceed expectations this year.

SAIC Motor sold a total of about 2.072 million vehicles in the first half of this year, of which more than 1.18 million units were sold in the second quarter, an increase of 32.5% from the first quarter.

Overseas markets are another highlight of SAIC's performance in the first half of this year. In June this year, SAIC Motor sold about 95,000 units in overseas markets. In the first half of this year, SAIC's overseas sales were about 533,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 40%. Among them, MG brand sales in the European market were about 115,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 143%, and new energy accounted for more than 50%.

BYD as the world's largest sales of new energy vehicle brand, Tesla is the world's successful electric vehicle brand, SAIC as China's largest state-owned automobile group, whether it is new models, technological innovation, production and sales data, the performance of the three of them has a strong wind vane significance in the Chinese market.

The new forces are seriously divided

In June 2023, the delivery volume of Li Auto reached 32,600 units, which is the fourth consecutive month that Li Auto delivered more than 20,000 units, and the first time that Li Auto delivered more than 30,000 units in a single month, in the first half of 2023, Li Auto's delivery volume was 139117 units, which has exceeded the delivery volume of the whole year of 2022, and the annual sales target of Li Auto in 2023 is 300,000, and the completion degree in the first half of the year is 46.7%, the highest completion degree of all domestic car brands.

In the third quarter, the ideal L8 and ideal L9 target monthly delivery of more than 10,000 vehicles, the ideal L7 will challenge the monthly delivery target of 15,000 vehicles, and in the fourth quarter of this year, the ideal will challenge the monthly delivery target of 40,000 vehicles.

In the first half of this year, the sales growth rate of ideal cars was obvious, which was very prominent in the half-year answers of a number of new automakers.

In contrast, other new forces are still struggling at the 10,000 level.

NIO and Xpeng Motors sold 54,600 and 41,400 units in the first half of 2023. NIO's sales target for 2023 is 250,000 units, while Xpeng's sales target is 200,000 units, with the former achieving 22.27% and the latter achieving 20.72%. Judging from market performance, the three brothers who used to be in the same camp have now parted ways.

NIO's monthly sales once shrank below 10,000 units after several months of sluggish sales, in stark contrast to its strong performance at the end of last year. In order to reverse the decline, NIO frequently made efforts to adjust user rights, ET5 hunting version and new ES8 began delivery, and finally returned to the monthly sales of 10,000 vehicles.

Since Xpeng Motors went public last year, the market sales have been sluggish. To this end, Xpeng Motors launched a vigorous organizational structure adjustment, experienced a series of personnel adjustments, launched P7i and G6, as for whether Xpeng Motors can rely on G6 to get out of the sales haze, it still needs time to test.

In addition to new forces, new energy vehicle brands of independent brands are also seriously divided.

Traditional independent active layout

In the first half of 2023, SAIC,

GAC

The three state-owned automobile groups in Changan reached 2.07 million units, 1.163 million units, and 1.2157 million units, respectively.

Great Wall

and

lucky

Cumulative sales were 519,200 units and 694,000 units, respectively. The half-year sales completion of the above five companies was 34.53%, 44.05%, 43.42%, 32.45% and 42.06% respectively. Except for SAIC Motor and Great Wall Motor, the completion of the remaining three has reached more than 40%, even surpassing BYD.

This also shows the strong capabilities of independent car brands.

In June this year, the GAC Group sold 236,000 units, including 53,000 new energy vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 96.5%. From January to June 2023, GAC Group's cumulative vehicle sales were 1.163 million units, up 1.1% y/y, of which NEV sales were 236,000 units, up 108.5% y/y.

The GAC Group's annual sales target for this year increased by 7%, and the completion rate in the first half of the year was 44.05%, and the actual sales increased by about 10,000 units. Under its joint venture brand

Guangqi Honda

、

GAC Toyota

Sales decreased by 18.89% and 9.48% y/y, respectively, mainly due to the surge in sales of its own new energy vehicles.

From January to June this year, GAC Group's sales of new energy passenger vehicles were 236,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 108.5%. especially

Aian

In June, sales reached 45,013 units, exceeding 40,000 units for four consecutive months. Cumulative sales in the first half of 2023 were 209336 units. With the increase in sales, Aion is also accelerating the pace of product updates, which makes everyone look forward to Aion's performance in the second half of the year.

Changan Automobile

This year's annual sales target increased by 14.3%, the completion rate in the first half of the year was 43.42%, and the actual sales increased by about 10,000 units, of which the sales of own brands reached 1.02 million units, accounting for 83.95% of the group.

Geely Automobile's annual sales target for this year is the same as the previous year, with a completion rate of 42.06% in the first half of the year, and actual sales increased by about 80,000 units. Half

Polar Krypton

The cumulative sales volume is 42,633 units, which has surpassed Xpeng Motors. There are already

Extreme Krypton X

、

Polar Krypton 001

、

Extreme Krypton 009

Of the three models on sale, the return of sales to the 10,000-unit level in June is a positive sign.

From the perspective of these state-owned automobile groups with a high degree of sales completion in half a year, they have one thing in common is that they have an early layout in the field of new energy and launched a strong incubation brand. In particular, Changan Automobile has launched two new brands in one go

Avita

and

Blue

Automobile, this is a development path, the purpose of which is to launch more brands and get more market opportunities.

People evaluate cars

The results of the first half of the year have become a thing of the past, and new forces and traditional independent brands are making efforts to meet the opportunities and challenges in the second half of the year. Aion, Xpeng, NIO and other brands have launched new models, full of firepower, equipped in the second half of the year, BYD, Lili, Tesla will also launch new cars in the second half of the year to meet market challenges.

In addition, each company is also accelerating its overseas market layout to seek more market opportunities. The knockout rounds are intensifying and the challenge is just beginning.