Uncomfortable! Sales of GAC's joint venture brand continued to decline
On September 8, the GAC Group released its latest production and sales report. According to the data, the GAC Group's vehicle sales in August were 196,800 units, 9.68% year-on-year.
In terms of specific brands, among the joint venture brands, GAC Honda sold 42,500 units, down 40.22% y/y, while GAC Toyota sold 70,600 units, down 16.56% y/y. Among its own brands, GAC Passenger Vehicle sold 37,600 units, up 25.47% y/y, while GAC AION sold 45,000 units, up 66.63% y/y.
According to the statistics of "Automotive Industry Focus", GAC Toyota and GAC Honda accounted for 57.47% of the group's total sales, while GAC Passenger Vehicle and GAC AION accounted for 41.97%. Although the joint venture brand is still the main source of sales of the GAC Group, the proportion of joint venture brands has begun to shrink, and its market performance has been deteriorating. It is true that the future growth of the GAC Group will come from its own brands, and both GAC Passenger Vehicle and GAC Aion will achieve double-digit sales growth.
According to retail data, GAC Toyota's best-selling model in August was Fenglanda, with 19,765 units, and Camry and Veranda were also more than 10,000 units, with 15,719 and 11,555 units, respectively. Guangqi Honda is even more dismal, none of its models have sold more than 10,000 units, the highest sales model is the Accord, only 9477 units sold, followed by Style and Haoying, 9429 units and 9121 units respectively.
Previously, GAC Group released its 2023 interim performance report showing that the group's net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies in the first half of the year was 2.966 billion yuan, down 48.42% year-on-year; The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company, net of non-recurring profits and losses, was 2.703 billion yuan, down 52.09% from the same period last year; GAC Group said in its financial report, "During the reporting period, the Group's investment income was approximately CNY 5.448 billion, a decrease of approximately CNY 3.050 billion from the same period of the previous year, mainly due to the decrease in earnings of Japanese joint ventures. ”
From the perspective of full-year sales, GAC Honda's sales from January to August 2023 decreased by 25.70% y/y to 374,400 units, and GAC Toyota's sales decreased by 11.27% y/y to 593,400 units. The decline of joint venture brands has begun to affect the Group's sales volume. In the first half of the year, the GAC Group's cumulative sales increased by 1.14% y/y to 1.163 million units, and fell 2.34% y/y to 1,550,700 units as of the end of August. If the joint venture does not improve its sales in the coming months, the GAC Group's annual sales target will most likely not be achieved. As of the end of August, the GAC Group has achieved its target of 57.82%, and it needs to achieve one million sales in the next four months, which is very stressful.
For GAC Group, if it wants to achieve its sales target, it must rely on its own brands, and the new energy vehicles represented by GAC AION have a rapid momentum, and the sales growth rate is significantly better than the industry, but the hidden worry is that about 30% of GAC AION's sales come from the ride-hailing market, and like BYD, it has become the main brand in the ride-hailing market, and the price, endurance and quality performance within 200,000 yuan are decent, making AION S a serious cost-effective model for ride-hailing drivers, and one of the best performing brands among the new forces. However, at present, the ride-hailing market has gradually saturated, and many places have issued early warnings and restrictive measures for ride-hailing to remind practitioners to carefully consider entering the market, which is not a good signal for GAC AION.
In addition, the image of online car hailing is not conducive to brand upward movement, once the brand is bound to online car hailing, it is difficult to talk about high-end. At present, GAC AION's models on sale include AION S, AION V, AION Y, AION LX four models, there is no essential difference between the five models, and in the past two years, a round of innovation in platform and three electric technologies has basically been completed. This is also why GAC AION launched Haobon, because the Aion brand is no longer capable of high-end and can only start from scratch.
The decline of joint venture brands and the head-on catch-up of independent brands have become the most true portrayal of China's automobile market, and also reveal the embarrassing position of joint venture brands in the domestic market. Previously, joint venture brands dominated the Chinese auto market for more than 20 years, and Chinese auto brands had no choice, but today's independent brands have gradually become the target of global car companies to catch up.
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