In 2023, China's auto industry will usher in a bumper harvest, with production and sales exceeding the 30 million mark for the first time, ranking first in the world for 15 consecutive years. Among them, vehicle exports totaled 4.91 million units, up 57.9% y/y, surpassing Japan to become the world's largest automobile exporter. New energy vehicles (NEVs) continued to grow rapidly, with sales up 37.9% y/y to 9.495 million units, while exports increased 77.6% y/y to 1.203 million units.
A number of leading car companies have handed over a dazzling "report card". As the double sales champion of China's auto market and the global new energy vehicle market, BYD achieved revenue of 602.315 billion yuan and net profit of 30.041 billion yuan, an increase of 42.04% and 80.72% year-on-year respectively.
Geely Automobile's revenue increased by 21% year-on-year to 179.2 billion yuan, a record high, and its net profit surged 51% year-on-year to 5.308 billion yuan. Li Auto became the first new EV manufacturer in China with annual revenue exceeding 100 billion yuan, up 173.5% year-on-year to 123.85 billion yuan, and also the first new car company in China to achieve annual profit, with a net profit of 11.81 billion yuan.
Chery Group's revenue in 2023 exceeded the 300 billion yuan mark for the first time, reaching 315.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 50.4%, achieving a "big leap" of 100 billion yuan in one year, automobile sales of 1,881,300 units, a year-on-year increase of 52.6%, more than four times the average growth rate of the industry, and maintaining the first place in the export of Chinese brand passenger cars for 21 consecutive years, with an export volume of 937,148 units, a year-on-year increase of 101.1%, accounting for nearly half of the country's total exports.
Up to now, Chery Group has established 10 overseas factories, has more than 1,000 dealers and service outlets, and exported its products to more than 80 countries and regions, with a total of more than 13 million global automobile users, of which overseas users account for more than a quarter of the total, reaching 3.35 million.
It is worth mentioning that Chery has also become the global sales champion of Chinese SUVs in 2023 with a score of 1.46 million units. The Tiggo family, which owns the "troika" (Tiggo 9, Tiggo 8, Tiggo 7), won the global sales championship of Chinese brand fuel SUVs in 2023 with sales of 940,000.
According to public information, Chery was founded in 1997, headquartered in Wuhu, Anhui Province, and owns wholly-owned Chery Automobile (four major brands: Chery, Xingtu, Jietu, iCAR), Chery Commercial Vehicle, and more than 10 automobile manufacturing enterprises such as Chery Jaguar Land Rover, Kaiyi, and River Special Vehicle.
After 27 years of development, Chery has established a global R&D and innovation system including eight R&D centers in North America, Europe and Shanghai, with a R&D team composed of nearly 20,000 engineers and scientists, with a total of more than 29,000 patents applied for and more than 18,000 authorizations, ranking first in the top 100 invention patents in Anhui Province for 10 consecutive years.
Under the guidance of the "Yaoguang 2025" strategy, Chery has achieved 19+3 core technology upgrades based on the five core areas of Mars architecture, Kunpeng Power, Lion Intelligent Cabin, Dazhuo Intelligent Driving, and Galaxy Ecology, and seized the commanding heights of the development of new energy and intelligent tracks.
As the first production model of the Mars architecture-super hybrid platform, the Tiggo 9 was officially launched on May 30 last year. Positioning as a "maglev ultra-comfortable flagship SUV", it takes the lead in "sinking" the CDC electromagnetic suspension that was originally only configured for four or five hundred thousand luxury cars to the 200,000 range, and adjusts the body attitude in real time through 5 vehicle status monitoring sensors + 4 electromagnetic shock absorbers + 1 controller to achieve "super stability and comfort".
With the unique 5+2-seat space layout in the same class, coupled with the diversified configuration of Kunpeng power and intelligent technology, the Tiggo 8 sold more than 200,000 units last year, becoming the sales champion of domestic fuel medium-sized SUVs and seven-seat SUVs, and has won the love and support of 900,000 users around the world so far.
Positioned as an economical mid-size SUV, the Tiggo 7 is sold in 66 countries and regions around the world, with cumulative sales of 380,000 units. Last year, it exported 178,731 units, making it the top Chinese brand SUV exporter for the second year in a row, ranking third in the industry behind SAIC MG ZS (251,292 units) and Tesla Model Y (190,451 units).
In addition to the Tiggo family, Chery also launched models such as Shanhai L9, Exploration 06, Xingtu Lanyue, Jietu X70, Jietu Daisheng, and Jietu Traveler. The iCAR 03, the first model of iCAR, the company's first new energy electric brand, was launched on February 28 and sold 5,487 units in its first month. The car is positioned as a compact SUV with a price of 150,000 yuan, and the unique "square box" hard off-road shape is particularly eye-catching, providing three models of 401km, 472km and 501km to meet diversified needs.
On March 11, the Xingtu brand launched a plug-in hybrid mid-size SUV - Xingtu Yaoguang C-DM, equipped with the fourth-generation global hybrid system, equipped with NOC high-speed pilot, HPA memory parking, TJA traffic jam assist, ICA integrated cruise assistance and other intelligent driving functions, with a price of 159,800-225,800 yuan but a benchmark of 400,000 yuan of comfort configuration.
Write at the end
In the first quarter of 2024, Chery Group achieved a "good start", with a total of 529,604 vehicles sold, a year-on-year increase of 60.3%, far exceeding the industry growth rate (13.1%), and continued to maintain a rapid growth trend. Total exports totaled 253,418 units, accounting for 47.9% of the total. Yin Tongyue, chairman of the board of directors, said: This year's group sales growth target is 10-20 percentage points beyond the industry, and we will wait and see whether it can be successfully achieved.