BYD is crowned king, Volkswagen remains strong, who is the biggest winner in the new era of 30 million vehicles?

In 2023, China's automobile production and sales will reach a total of 30.161 million units and 30.094 million units, respectively, with production and sales reaching a record high. To create this remarkable achievement, it is inseparable from the efforts of various car companies. With the support of new energy vehicles, mainstream leading car companies have generally achieved growth results, and each has shown differentiated advantages. For example, BYD has won in terms of sales scale and target achievement rate, Great Wall's overseas strategy has begun to bear fruit, and the Volkswagen Group is still a proper hegemon. So, who is the real "winner" of this year's auto market? Let's take a look.

Completion of sales target: BYD won the championship, and Geely was the most stable

Looking back on the whole year of 2023, the performance of car companies is clearly differentiated. Among the top 20 automakers that have released sales so far, only 5 have exceeded their targets, and 2 have achieved 90% or more of their annual targets. Let's start by looking at which companies are exceeding their annual KPIs.

First of all, the leading BYD has lived up to expectations to achieve the annual sales target of new energy vehicles, selling 3,024,400 units in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 62.3%, exceeding the annual sales target of 3 million units, becoming the world's No. 1 new energy vehicle company in terms of sales. BYD's report card is a height that no domestic car company has ever reached, and it is definitely a brilliant record of Chinese automobiles.

Geely Automobile will also soar in 2023, with cumulative sales of 1.687 million units, a year-on-year increase of about 18%, exceeding the sales target and breaking the sales record of previous years. The reason why Geely's sales will soar in 2023 should be said to be that new energy models have made great contributions. The annual sales of its new energy vehicles were 487,400 units, an increase of 48% year-on-year, and in terms of sales proportion, it has exceeded Geely's total sales

30%。

Li Auto's plan for 2023 is 300,000 units, and 370,000 units were finally delivered, with a completion rate of 125%. I have to say that the current ideal car momentum is very strong, and its three SUV models can achieve monthly sales of more than 10,000. The 2023 sales target was also completed by Dongfeng Lantu, which sold a total of 50,552 units for the year, an increase of 160%. Although the brand is not very popular, the sales volume is still good, and the goal has been achieved, which is a gratifying phenomenon.

Overseas exports: SAIC is far ahead, and the Great Wall is boiling out

Behind the growth of production and sales, car companies are also accelerating their overseas expansion. Brother Yu combed through relevant data and found that compared with BYD, Geely, Li and other car companies that have completed their annual sales targets, in the past 2023, some car companies have made significant breakthroughs in overseas markets. Now let's focus on the "overseas field" to see who has the most export volume and which car company has the most potential.

SAIC's export volume in 2023 can be described as an exaggeration. SAIC Motor will sell more than 5.02 million vehicles in 2023, ranking first in China for 18 consecutive years. In terms of exports, SAIC Motor's overseas sales reached a record high of 1.208 million units, up 18.8% year-on-year. Being able to achieve such results in overseas markets is not unrelated to the development of the MG brand. At present, MG has ranked among the top 10 single brands in nearly 20 countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Chile and Mexico.

Similarly, Chery's export business is also quite impressive. In 2023, Chery Group will sell a total of 1.881 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 52.6%. Among them, the export volume of automobiles was 937,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 101.1%, and the export volume accounted for nearly half of the total sales, which is almost the only export ratio among domestic car companies.

Although Great Wall Motors did not achieve its sales target in 2023 and only sold 1.23 million units, it surprised us in terms of exports. The cumulative overseas sales for the whole year were 316,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 82.48%, which was also the first time that Great Wall Motor's export sales exceeded 300,000 units. Up to now, Great Wall Motor's cumulative overseas sales have exceeded 1.4 million units, officially ranking among the top three in China's automobile exports.

Joint venture "strong flow": Volkswagen is strong, Toyota bucks the trend

Under the continuous impact of Chinese brands, the overall performance of joint venture brands that were once booming is not too good in 2023, and the "decline" in sales has become its main theme. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find that some brands have bucked the trend and become the fastest growing and most successful representatives of joint ventures.

Specifically, FAW-Volkswagen still leads the joint venture sector and is one of the few joint venture brands that maintains a positive growth trend. In 2023, FAW-Volkswagen will sell a total of 1.91 million units (including Audi imported vehicles), a year-on-year increase of 4.8%. Among them, the cumulative sales of the Volkswagen brand segment for the whole year were 1.04 million units, a year-on-year increase of 5.3%, and continued to lead the joint venture market.

In 2023, GAC Toyota and FAW Toyota will sell 901,000 and 800,000 units, respectively. Among them, FAW Toyota achieved a year-on-year increase of 4.1%, becoming the only Japanese brand to maintain positive growth; GAC Toyota failed to hold the high ground of one million units, but its industry and market position have been improved - for the first time, it has advanced to the top three joint ventures, becoming the only Japanese brand among the top six in the industry, and setting the best ranking of Japanese joint ventures in the past five years.

It is worth noting that the joint venture car companies represented by SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC-GM have also performed well in the new energy track, and the electrification transformation has achieved remarkable results. SAIC Volkswagen's annual new energy sales exceeded 130,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 32%, and entered the first echelon of the new energy market. SAIC-GM is not far behind, with its new energy vehicle sales reaching 100,000 units for the first time, a year-on-year increase of 104%, and a new energy penetration rate of 10%.

On the whole, the performance of independent brands in 2023 is particularly bright, with BYD, Geely and others exceeding KPIs and reaching the top strongly. The Great Wall, Chery and other car companies have also delivered a beautiful performance in going overseas and have become "big exporters" of automobiles. In addition, among the joint venture brands, such as FAW-Volkswagen and GAC Toyota, they are still selling against the trend, which is worthy of being a "strong stream" among the joint venture brands. In the face of 2024, who will once again stand at the forefront and become the winner of the auto market?