In February, the top 20 in the sedan market: Tesla Model 3 won the championship, and 10 independent models were on the list
Affected by the Spring Festival holiday and some sales overdrafts in January, the domestic auto market showed a significant downward trend in February 2024, and the wholesale sales data released by the Passenger Car Association showed that the wholesale sales of passenger car manufacturers nationwide in February were 1.295 million units, down 19.9% year-on-year and 38.0% month-on-month.
In the sedan market, a total of 543,000 new vehicles were sold in February, down 25% year-on-year and 37.7% month-on-month. Judging from the situation of the best-selling models, the decline is also very significant. There is only one model with monthly sales of more than 20,000 units, and Tesla's Model 3 won the sales championship in the sedan market in February with less than 25,000 units. On the list of the top 20 sedan sales in February, there are 6 models with monthly sales of less than 10,000 units, which is also a relatively rare situation in recent years. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the share of domestic brands continues to increase, and 10 of the top 20 models in February are independent products.
A00 class car market: another "lone seedling"
In February, there is still only one A00-class product that ranked among the top 20 sedan sales, and it is still the familiar micro electric vehicle Hongguang MINI EV. At present, the domestic mini-car market has been completely electric vehicles, and there are wholesale sales data of mini-cars in February, all of which are electric models. But it is worth mentioning that although there are a lot of micro electric vehicles on the market at present, but there are not many real runs, there are only two micro electric vehicles that sold more than 5,000 units in February, in addition to Hongguang MINIEV, Geely Automobile's Panda mini sold 5,188 cars in February.
After about two years of market explosion, Hongguang MINI EV will enter a market trough in 2023, with monthly sales plummeting from tens of thousands of units at its peak to thousands or even less than 1,000 units, and the market performance can be described as plummeting. It wasn't until the last two months of 2023 that the momentum picked up, but the overall market volatility was still relatively high.
宏光MINI EV,图片来源:上汽通用五菱
Why does the sales data continue to fluctuate? It is related to the changes in the market competition environment, the current domestic automobile market is becoming more and more "volume", and Hongguang MINI EV products that basically have no other competitive advantages in addition to low prices will definitely be squeezed out of the market space by the A0-class or even A-class models whose prices continue to fall. In addition, the adjustment of SAIC-GM-Wuling's own development strategy is also a key reason. The joint venture car company, which has been caught in the "trap" of low-end competition, is also trying to break through the market and improve profitability, and the strategic focus has begun to shift to the direction of creating high value-added products.
It is indeed very difficult to make a trade-off between maintaining the market size and breaking through to the upside.
At present, it seems that it is very difficult for SAIC-GM-Wuling to break through the market, but with the help of the current trend of new energy in the industry, it has also achieved preliminary results. New energy products are already the absolute pillar of SAIC-GM-Wuling. Of SAIC-GM-Wuling's overall sales of less than 50,000 units in February, new energy products accounted for more than 30,000 units. In addition to Hongguang MINIEV, there are also starlight products with monthly sales of more than 10,000 products. Starlight's car is not only a test of Wuling in the mainstream car market, but also bears the heavy responsibility of Wuling's new energy transformation and challenge the higher-end market.
A0 class car market: BYD "invincible"
In February, in the domestic A0-class market, only two models achieved monthly sales of more than 10,000 yuan, and both of these cars are BYD's products. Wuling Binguo, which once had a wrestling with BYD's Seagull and Dolphin in the small car market, has not performed well recently, with sales of just over 6,000 units in February.
February is in the transition period of BYD's product update Glory version models, coupled with the end of last year, in order to rush the annual sales target of 3 million units, it did release a lot of potential orders at the beginning of this year in advance, so BYD's sales data in February 2024 fell a lot. But on the whole, BYD's main models are still top-notch in their respective market segments.
In February, in the domestic small car market, Dolphin and Seagull once again won the title of sales champion and runner-up, and both cars handed over more than 13,000 monthly sales data in February.
Dolphin Glory Edition, Image Credit: BYD
In third place is Wuling Binguo, which sold 6,546 cars in February, which has opened up a big gap in the market. However, for the Binguo series, the recent decline in sales is not unrelated to the product refresh. At the beginning of March, Binguo PLUS has been officially put on the market, launching two versions with a range of 401km and 510km, with official guide prices of 89,800 yuan and 98,800 yuan respectively. The price has increased a lot, but the battery life has also been fully upgraded, can the Wuling brand extend the market range upward, but also help the Binguo family to complete the market outbreak again?
A-segment car market: The family car market is reshaping a new pattern
The battle for the share of the domestic car market has entered a new stage, from the joint venture to the joint venture to the independent division and then to the independent gradual grasp of the market initiative, in just 2 or 3 years, the domestic A-class car market has undergone earth-shaking changes. In February, 8 A-class sedans entered the top 20 sedan sales list, and 5 of them were self-owned.
In February, a total of three joint venture A-class cars entered the top 20 sedan sales, of which Suteng handed over sales data of nearly 10,000 units, and Lavida and Sylphy respectively won the sales championship and runner-up in the A-class car market in February. In the current market environment, Lavida and Sylphy can also achieve the results of leading the market segment, relying on nothing more than two reasons, one is to give considerable market concessions, relying on low prices to sprint the market;
Qin PLUS sold more than 15,000 cars in February, which is a big market trough since the model was launched, but for BYD, there is definitely no need to worry, Qin PLUS's market performance should soon improve, after all, BYD has experience in this regard. Last year, when there were obvious fluctuations in the market, BYD released the Qin PLUS Champion Edition model, and the arrival of the new version can be said to be a turning tide, and quickly pushed the monthly sales data of the Qin PLUS car series back to a high level. In February this year, the Qin PLUS Glory Edition was the first to be released, compared with the previous champion version of the model, the starting price dropped by 20,000 yuan, and the impact on the market can be said to be obvious to all, setting off a new round of price war in the domestic market. In the general expectation of the industry, in March this year, the market performance of the Qin PLUS car series will definitely recover quickly or even set a new record.
Qin PLUS DM-i Glory Edition, image source: BYD
In addition to the Qin PLUS, the other independent A-class cars that have entered the top 20 sedan sales list are traditional oil vehicles, with a total of four models. Among them, Changan UNI-V and Chery Arrizo 8 both delivered monthly sales of nearly 10,000 units, and entered the best-selling sedan list in February.
Geely Automobile's Emgrand and Xingrui products have also entered the top 20 list of sedans, and their monthly sales are more than 10,000 units. Emgrand has the advantage of price, and Xingrui is the leader in product power in the same class of models. In the A-class car segment, Geely has a good product reserve for both downward and upward movements, the only pity is that it is now the world of new energy products, and Geely still needs to make further efforts in the new energy car market.
The B-segment car market: independent upward attack, still needs to work hard
In the B-class sedan market, the competitiveness of independent products is still inferior. In February, there were seven B-segment sedans in the top 20 sedan sales, and only two of them were autonomous cars.
Tesla's Model 3 was the best-selling sedan market in February, with more than 24,000 units sold. Although it once again won the monthly sales crown in the Chinese sedan market, Tesla's current global situation is not particularly ideal. Continued price cuts have seriously affected Tesla's profitability, and the long-term lack of stimulation of new products has also begun to limit Tesla's market appeal. For Tesla, a new round of business difficulties may be accelerating.
The Passat and Magotan can be said to be the last sticking to the old joint venture B-class in the domestic market, and the two cars still maintained monthly sales of more than 10,000 units in February. However, in the past market segment, it is difficult to reproduce the grand occasion of German Passat + Magotan PK Japanese Accord + Camry. In the past two years, under the impact of independent new energy products, many star products of Japanese car companies have rapidly collapsed in market performance. How to run the business in the Chinese market in the future? For mainstream joint venture brands, it has reached a stage where it must be carefully considered.
The Mercedes-Benz C-Class and BMW 3 Series are the best-selling models in the luxury car market, with sales of both cars remaining at around 10,000 units in February this year. In order to continue to maintain good market competitiveness in the context of the current new energy consumption becoming the mainstream, the market means relied on by the Mercedes-Benz C-class and BMW 3 Series can be said to be similar, and they are continuing to expand their promotional efforts. It is basically certain that relying on substantial price reductions and independent new energy products that are continuing to impact the mid-to-high-end market to grab share, it will be the luxury car brand represented by BBA, and the regular operation in the Chinese market for a period of time in the future.
The Wuling Starlight and Hongqi H5 were the frontrunners in the autonomous B-segment sedan market in February. Among them, Starlight has delivered a monthly sales volume of more than 10,000 yuan, which has become an important support in the market transformation of the Wuling brand. Hongqi H5 has also grown into the market pillar of the Hongqi brand, in the past half a year, Hongqi H5 has repeatedly exceeded 10,000 monthly sales, although the sales in February have fallen, but also handed over nearly 10,000 units of market performance. At present, the two best-selling independent B-class sedans are mainly cost-effective advantages, the starting price of Starlight is less than 100,000 yuan, and the starting price of Hongqi H5, which is positioned more high-end, is less than 160,000 yuan (there are still a lot of market discounts), all of which belong to the price "depression" in the market segment. If you are on a budget but want to have a larger size sedan, the Wuling Starlight and Hongqi H5 are both good choices.
Starlight, image source: SAIC-GM-Wuling
C-segment car market: There is still demand for traditional luxury cars
The tide of new energy in automobile consumption has indeed given many independent car companies the opportunity to attack the market, but after all, the luxury car brands represented by BBA have deep roots in the high-end car market. The market pressure will definitely increase, but traditional luxury car brands will still resist the market impact of independent high-end new energy products through price stimulus and other means.
There are two C-Class cars in the top 20 sedan sales in February, namely the Audi A6L and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. However, the performance of the two cars can only be regarded as mediocre, and the monthly sales of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class are even less than 9,000 units. It is not difficult to see that under the obvious trend of consumption downgrading, coupled with the comprehensive impact of the price war of independent high-end new energy products becoming more and more "volume", the traditional luxury car forces represented by BBA must show enough sincerity to maintain their market share.
In the independent new energy market, BYD Han, which has been firmly on the best-selling list of C-class cars for a long time, has also experienced relatively large ups and downs in its recent performance. However, similar to the situation of the Qin PLUS car series, the follow-up performance of the BYD Han family will definitely have a good improvement. A few days ago, the glory version of the BYD Han family has also been launched, and the price of the entry-level model has dropped to less than 170,000 yuan.
BYD, which has begun to transfer to the stage of "guarding the country", has raised a bright "price butcher knife" by relying on a series of glory models recently launched, and wants to redefine the new price standards in various market segments. Next, including luxury car brands, whoever does not "roll up" as soon as possible may usher in a comprehensive market rout.