BYD punched in 3 million vehicles, and only 4 achieved the target

Just after 2023, major car companies can't wait to announce the results after a year of fighting, and as of January 5, more than 20 car companies have announced last year's total sales. How are they performing, and are they able to meet the goals they set for last year? However, it should be noted that the following sales volume is self-supplied by the brand and may be different from the data released by statistical agencies in the future.

BYD has completed the goal of 3 million vehicles, and only 4 brands have reached the standard?

At present, most of the sales announced are independent brands, and this vigorous and resolute approach can be said to be the beginning of the new forces, so let's take a look at the performance of independent brands, especially new forces.

There is no doubt that BYD is the top of the automobile market in the past two years, and its sales have doubled again and again until it surpassed FAW-Volkswagen to become the sales leader in the Chinese market. Under everyone's attention, BYD has done it: BYD (including various sub-brands) sold 3.0244 million vehicles for the year, a year-on-year increase of 61.9%, and deservedly became the sales champion in the Chinese market and the global sales champion. It is worth mentioning that the annual sales also included export sales of 242,700 units, a year-on-year increase of 334.2%, and there were many developed countries such as Japan, Singapore, Israel, and New Zealand.

Tesla also announced its sales last year: 1,808,500 new vehicles were delivered around the world, of which 96.2% were Model 3 and Model Y. In terms of sales, BYD is far ahead of Tesla, but the meaning behind it is very different: first of all, Tesla can indeed be said to be an international brand, in Europe, China, The world's three major automobile markets in North America have very good sales, and most of BYD's sales come from China (due to political factors, BYD may not be as smooth as Tesla); secondly, Tesla's average transaction price and profit margin per car are obviously higher than BYD, and the latter's sales base is less than 200,000 yuan of affordable models; finally, just look at the sales of pure electric vehicles, in fact, BYD is still lower than Tesla—— Its hybrid and pure electric sales account for about half of the sales, but BYD's pure electric sales in the fourth quarter of last year have surpassed Tesla's.

Of course, due to the poor economic environment and increasingly fierce market competition, there are not many brands that can actually achieve their annual goals, and there are only a few except BYD. First of all, Geely, one of the independent heads, had a total sales of 1.6865 million units last year, including Lynk & Co, Zeekr and other sub-brands, a year-on-year increase of about 18%, just exceeding the original target of 1.65 million units, but Geely's sales are still dominated by fuel vehicles, with new energy vehicle sales of 487,500 units, and new energy accounts for less than 30%. However, this year, Geely has significantly accelerated the pace of launching new energy vehicles, according to its 2024 target announced at the same time, new energy vehicles will increase by more than 66% (that is, sales of at least 810,000 units), while the total sales target is 1.9 million units, and the proportion of new energy vehicles will rise to 42%. It is also worth mentioning that although the sales volume of Geely as a whole exceeded the set target, its brand Zeekr only achieved 85% of its target, that is, 118,700 units/140,000 units.

Another brand that exceeded its annual target was Ideal, which delivered 376,000 new cars in 2023, becoming the brand with the most over-quota with a 125% completion rate, and the L7, L8, and L9 models were all very popular after they were launched, and the sales volume in December exceeded 50,000 units for the first time, obviously it was too conservative when the target of 300,000 units was set last year. The last known brand to meet its annual target is VOYAH, which sold a total of 50,600 units last year, compared to an annual target of 50,000 units. VOYAH was in the doldrums for a while, but with the launch of the more cost-effective facelifted Dreamer and the Chasing Light, sales have improved significantly.

Let's take a look at those brands that are close to completion, among which Aion's annual sales are 485,000 units, the target is 500,000 units, and the completion rate is 96%, Aion performed well in the first half of the year, but unfortunately it failed to continue in the second half of the year, and it is only one step away from the target; Chery is a relatively low-key but good sales brand, and last year's sales also reached 1.8813 million units, of which nearly one-third were export sales, but it was still a little short of the target of 2 million units, with a completion rate of 94%. The aforementioned Denza and ZEEKR are both mid-to-high-end sub-brands of the group, and the annual target and actual sales volume are also very close, respectively 127,800 units/150,000 units and 118,700 units/140,000 units, with a completion rate of 85%, but these two brands only began to really exert their strength last year, and there is still great potential in the future.

As for those brands with a low completion rate, Great Wall, as one of the old domestic car companies, used to be the boss of its own brand, but the Great Wall seems to have fallen into confusion in the past two years, although there are many new cars but the positioning is vague, and the product highlights are not prominent, except for tanks, there is a lack of new cars that can be remembered by consumers, and sales have also declined. Great Wall's total sales last year were 1,230,700 units, while the annual target was 1.6 million units, that is, only 77% completed, the good news is that Great Wall's sales last year were significantly better than in 2022 (1.06 million units), and it is hoped that the new year will pick up further.

The gap between "Wei Xiaoli" is getting bigger and bigger, there is an ideal over-completion of a quarter, and then there is a quarter of Weilai and Xiaopeng (more than), the annual target completion rate is only 64% and 71%, both brands have launched blockbuster new cars this year, such as the new Weilai ES6, Xiaopeng G6, etc., but they have failed to achieve the expected volume, and the new year will be refueled.

Only 2 joint venture brands announced sales volume, is it really difficult to joint venture?

Finally, let's take a look at the joint venture brands, as in the past, the joint venture brands are not in a hurry to announce their sales volumes, so only SAIC and FAW Toyota have released their report cards. Among them, SAIC Motor Group's sales volume is 5,020,900 units, which is still the highest sales volume in China, but its annual sales target is as high as 6 million units, so the achievement rate is only 84%. The main reason for the unsatisfactory sales is that the sales of several major joint venture brands have declined, with sales of SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling falling by 8%, 14.5% and 12.3% respectively, with sales of SAIC-Volkswagen, SAIC-GM and SAIC-GM increasing significantly and almost the joint venture brand with the highest sales of new energy vehicles in China.

FAW Toyota's annual sales are 800,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 4.1%, and it has been announced that it is the only positive growth among mainstream Japanese brands. However, this year, the joint venture brand seems to have been reduced to a supporting role in terms of volume, and it is not easy for FAW Toyota to achieve positive growth, and its goal next year is mainly to increase the proportion of new energy vehicles.

Summary: From the fact that only 4 car companies can achieve the annual goal, it can be seen that the competition in the auto market in 2023 is extremely fierce, and there are two major trends: first, the independent brand has become the protagonist, both in terms of volume and sales volume has overtaken the traditional joint venture brand, and the pressure on the joint venture brand is increasing; High-end brands such as DENZA also have the potential to challenge traditional luxury brands, and BYD still has great potential in the future. All in all, the new year's auto market will be more and more exciting.