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Independent car companies are still "soaring". According to the latest data from the China Passenger Car Association, in March, the retail sales of self-owned brand passenger cars were about 930,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 19% and a month-on-month increase of 51%. In the same month, the domestic retail share of self-owned brand passenger cars reached 54.8%, an increase of 6 percentage points year-on-year.
Judging from the data of the first quarter, the cumulative share of self-owned brand passenger cars reached 55%, an increase of 5.4 percentage points over the same period last year. The Federation of Passenger Cars believes that
The main reason for the high growth of retail sales of self-owned brand passenger cars is that the retail sales of self-owned brand passenger cars have maintained high growth in the new energy vehicle market and export markets, with the transformation and upgrading of leading traditional car companies performing well, and the market share of traditional automobile brands such as BYD, Chery Automobile, Geely Automobile and Changan Automobile has increased significantly.
In fact, the rapid growth of self-owned brand passenger cars in the new energy vehicle market has put pressure on Tesla. According to the latest production and sales data released by the China Passenger Car Association, in March, Tesla delivered about 57,600 Model Y and about 31,500 Model 3 vehicles in China, totaling about 89,000 vehicles, although higher than the same period last year (about 88,900 units), but an increase of only 0.2%.
Most of the domestic automakers got off to a good start in the first quarter
According to the data of the Passenger Association, in the first quarter of this year, the cumulative retail sales of domestic passenger cars were 4.829 million, a year-on-year increase of 13.1%, basically achieving the expected "good start" trend. In this context, independent car companies have also delivered outstanding report cards, and many car companies have increased their sales at a rate higher than the industry average.
For example, in the first quarter of this year, BYD maintained its lead with a sales performance of 626,300 units, and its monthly sales exceeded 300,000 units again in March; Chery Group's cumulative sales in the first quarter were about 529,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 60.3%; Geely Automobile sold 475,700 vehicles in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 49%; Changan Automobile's own brand sales reached 588,800 units in the first quarter, an increase of 13.57% year-on-year; and Great Wall Motor's sales in the first quarter were about 275,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 25.11%.
Image source: Photo by reporter Kong Zesi (data map)
In terms of new car brands, Wenjie's sales volume in the first quarter achieved significant growth, with a total of 85,800 new cars sold, a year-on-year increase of more than 600%, the fastest year-on-year growth rate among new car brands, Li Auto delivered 80,400 new cars in the same period, a year-on-year increase of 52.85%, and Xpeng Motors achieved 21,800 deliveries in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 19.87%.
As for the reasons for the high growth of retail sales of self-owned brand passenger cars, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Association, believes that this is mainly due to the significant increase in the new energy vehicle market and export market of self-owned brand passenger cars.
In terms of breakdown, the sales volume and export volume of new energy vehicles are the information highlighted in the production and sales reports of independent brands. For example, Changan Automobile revealed in the production and sales express report that in the first quarter of this year, the sales of Changan Automobile's own brand new energy models reached 128,800, a year-on-year increase of more than 52%.
Geely Automobile and Chery Group highlighted their export performance. Among them, Geely Automobile's export sales in the first quarter were 87,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 66%, Chery Group's export sales in the first quarter reached 253,400 units, nearly half of the overall sales, and Great Wall Motor said that in the first quarter of sales, overseas markets accounted for one-third, becoming an important force to promote profit growth.
"A big part of the strength of independent automakers in the past two years is that they have made higher profits from overseas markets. Despite the difficulties, independent automakers should be determined to expand overseas and integrate into overseas markets with localized development. Cui Dongshu said.
In the rally of domestic auto brands in the first quarter, there were also some brands that performed weakly. Among them, NIO sold about 30,000 units in the first quarter, down 3.2% year-on-year, and Nezha Automobile sold about 24,400 units in the first quarter, down 6.7% year-on-year.
Judging from the sales data of the first quarter, the gap between the new EV manufacturers continues to widen. This means that as the "price war" continues this year, the leading car companies will continue to wrestle on the market scale, and some weak auto brands are facing survival challenges.
In this regard, Galaxy Securities believes that from the delivery situation in the first quarter of this year, the market competition pattern is still further evolving, and enterprises with product strength and price advantages can achieve better sales performance in the fierce market competition environment.
The implementation of the policy is expected to continue to boost automobile consumption
Although many automakers got off to a good start in the first quarter, most of them are still under pressure in terms of the annual sales target completion rate.
According to incomplete statistics from the reporter of "Daily Economic News", among the above-mentioned independent brands, as of now, only Geely Automobile's annual sales target completion rate exceeds 20%, which is 24%. The annual sales target completion rate of most independent brands is between 10%~20%, and the annual sales target completion rate of Xpeng Motors and Nezha Automobile is even less than 10%.
Since the beginning of 2024, the "price war" in the automotive industry has intensified. Especially after the Spring Festival in the Year of the Dragon, BYD shouted the slogan of "electricity is lower than oil" and launched a number of Glory Edition models at lower prices, which triggered a chain reaction, and many car companies followed up to boost sales.
However, in Cui Dongshu's view, in the first quarter of this year, the sales growth of several major automobile groups is more due to the low base last year, and the price competition has little impact on this year's automobile sales.
"Recently, the fundamental reason for the price competition in the domestic passenger car market is the replacement of old technology with new technologies and the substitution process of new energy vehicles for fuel vehicles. Cui Dongshu believes that the short-term promotion of sales by the "price war" is actually not obvious. In the case of unstable prices, consumers are in a wait-and-see mood, which will put some pressure on the sales of the domestic auto market in the short term.
Bai Wenxi, vice chairman of the China Enterprise Capital Alliance, also said that when the price of vehicles fluctuates greatly, many consumers will wait and see, hoping to wait for better configuration and lower prices of vehicles, which is a common law in the process of price reduction in the car market in the past few years.
This judgment has been verified by the sales data of the auto market in the first week of April. According to public data, from April 1 to April 7, the total domestic sales of passenger cars reached 269,000 units, and the demand performance was weak. Among them, the sales of fuel passenger vehicles were 147,000 units, and the sales of new energy vehicles were 122,000 units, both of which declined month-on-month.
Galaxy Securities believes that after the Spring Festival, the domestic auto market sales recovery trend is clear, but the policy will still be a key factor to support the continuation of the sales recovery trend.
Image source: Photo by reporter Zhang Jian (data map)
Recently, the People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration jointly issued the Notice on Adjusting Relevant Policies on Auto Loans (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") to adjust the relevant policies for auto loans. The "Notice" mentions that "the maximum proportion of loans for self-use of traditional power vehicles and self-use new energy vehicles shall be determined by financial institutions independently, and the maximum proportion of loans for second-hand cars shall be 70%".
"The optimization and adjustment of the financial policy for car purchases, while reflecting the great importance attached to automobile consumption from the policy level, also moderately reduces the down payment burden of consumers to buy cars, which is expected to promote the release of first purchase and replacement demand to a certain extent, drive the consumption upgrade of automobile products, and help the sustainable development of the car market 'both quantity and quality'. Galaxy Securities believes.
The Passenger Association believes that with the recent launch of Xiaomi cars and the further adjustment of the prices of a new round of related models, coupled with the intensive release period of new models in April, the consumer enthusiasm of the domestic auto market will be gradually stimulated.
In this regard, Lu Jiamin, chief analyst of the automotive industry at Cinda Securities, said that the implementation of favorable policies such as trade-in is expected to continue to drive new car sales and the automotive aftermarket, and is optimistic about the continued upward trend of the auto sector from April.