Per reporter Li Xing
On September 8, the latest data released by the Passenger Association showed that in January ~ August, the cumulative retail sales of the domestic passenger car market were 13.22 million units, a year-on-year increase of 2%. Among them, the retail sales of passenger cars in the domestic passenger car market reached 1.92 million units in August, up 2.5% year-on-year and 8.6% month-on-month, reaching the highest level in the same period in history.
Image source: Passenger Association
According to Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Association, the car market performed hot in the off-season in August, mainly due to the growth of high-end model replacement and the rapid growth of new energy vehicles, which achieved an effective pull on domestic automobile consumption, and finally formed a new market situation of "off-season is not light".
Based on this, the China Passenger Association maintained its forecast of 21 million domestic retail sales of passenger cars and 8.5 million units of new energy passenger vehicles this year. "Judging from the current trend of the domestic car market, it is very likely that the forecast of the passenger association will be realized throughout the year." Cui Dongshu said in an interview with the "Daily Economic News" reporter that this year, the wholesale sales of mainland new energy vehicles at home and abroad are expected to be 7.5 million and 1 million respectively.
The retail share of self-owned brands exceeds 52%
In August, the retail sales of the domestic passenger car market showed a clear trend of brand competition, in which the retail sales of self-owned brands continued to grow, while mainstream joint venture brands faced greater challenges. Among them, the retail sales of own-brand passenger cars reached 1 million units, up 17% year-on-year and 6% month-on-month, and the retail share was 52.1%, up 6.1 percentage points year-on-year; in terms of wholesale, the market share of own-brand passenger cars reached 57.6% in August, up 8.6 percentage points year-on-year.
Cui Dongshu analyzed that the excellent performance of independent brands is mainly due to the obvious increment obtained by domestic car companies in the new energy market and export market, among which the transformation and upgrading of leading traditional car companies is more prominent.
According to the domestic narrow passenger car wholesale sales ranking that month, four of the top five car companies are self-owned brand car companies. Among them, BYD ranked first, followed by Chery Automobile, Geely Automobile and Changan Automobile, which ranked fifth, while FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC Volkswagen ranked fourth and sixth respectively.
Image source: Passenger Association
Unlike the strong performance of independent brands, retail sales of mainstream joint venture brands fell by 16% year-on-year in August. Among them, the retail share of German brands was 20.1%, down 1 percentage point year-on-year; The share of retail sales of Japanese brands was 16.7%, down 4 percentage points year-on-year; The retail share of the U.S. brand market was 8.5%, down 0.4 percentage points year-on-year.
In August, retail sales of luxury cars reached 280,000 units, up 9% y/y and 14% m/m. "The improvement in product supply worldwide has contributed to the strengthening of luxury car brands in the domestic retail market." Cui Dongshu explained.
In terms of exports, according to the statistics of the China Passenger Transportation Association, domestic passenger car exports (including finished vehicles and CKD) in August were 330,000 units, up 31% y/y and 7% m/m. Among them, exports of own-brand brands reached 284,000 units, up 58% y/y and 14% m/m. Exports of joint ventures and luxury brands totaled 46,000 units, down 39% y/y.
"From the current domestic automobile export performance, passenger car exports will continue to maintain a high growth trend. In 2023, domestic exports of new energy passenger vehicles will reach 1 million units. Cui Dongshu predicted.
Passenger Association calls for "stabilizing fuel vehicle consumption"
In August, the domestic NEV market continued to grow strongly, with wholesale sales reaching 798,000 units, up 25.6% y/y and 8.2% m/m, and a penetration rate of 35.7%, up 5.5 percentage points from the same period in 2022. Among them, in August, the penetration rate of own-brand new energy vehicles was 51%; The penetration rate of new energy vehicles among luxury vehicles was 34.6%; The penetration rate of mainstream joint venture brand new energy vehicles is only 6.1%.
Image source: Passenger Association
In January ~ August, the cumulative wholesale of domestic new energy vehicles was 5.078 million units, a year-on-year increase of 38.5%; Cumulative retail sales were 4.441 million units, up 36% y/y. "The high growth of domestic new energy passenger vehicles is mainly due to the excellent performance of mainstream car companies represented by BYD, Changan, SAIC, GAC, Geely, etc., which have performed well in the new energy sector." Cui Dongshu said.
With the multi-line development of self-owned brand automakers on the new energy technology route, the market base continues to expand, and the wholesale sales of automakers exceeded 10,000 units in August (unchanged from the same period last year and month), accounting for 87% of the total number of new energy passenger vehicles (88.1% last month and 82% in the same period last year). These data show that the competitive landscape of the new energy vehicle market is gradually becoming clearer, and it has also laid a solid foundation for future development.
Thanks to the pure electric and plug-in hybrid drive strategy, BYD sold about 274,100 units in August, ahead of other automakers, followed by Tesla China with sales of about 84,200 units, and Geely Automobile ranked third with sales of about 47,300 units.
While the new energy vehicle market continues to grow, Cui Dongshu called for "stabilizing the consumption of fuel vehicles". "In order to realize the transformation of the automotive industry to new energy, it is necessary to effectively stabilize the consumption of fuel vehicles and promote the smooth operation of the industry economy." Cui Dongshu thought.
It is worth noting that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transport and other seven departments jointly issued the "Work Plan for Stable Growth of the Automotive Industry (2023-2024)" a few days ago, which also made it clear that in order to stabilize the consumption of fuel vehicles, no new car purchase restrictions should be added in various places, and regions that implemented automobile purchase restrictions were encouraged to add a certain number of car purchase indicators on the basis of the 2022 car purchase indicators to further promote automobile consumption.