After a trough in February, the auto market regained its growth rhythm in March. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, mainland automobile sales reached 2.694 million units in March, an increase of more than 70% month-on-month and an increase of 9.9% over the same period last year.
Focusing on car companies, it is also a rising voice, and the doubling of the rise has been staged in some car companies, adding a lot of highlights to the auto market in March. It is particularly noteworthy that BYD (002594), whose sales plummeted in the first two months of this year, staged a "turnaround drama" again in March with the Glory version of the model, returning to the 300,000+ level.
There are many "accidents" of the new forces, and the ideal performance is not ideal
In March, there were many "accidents" of the new car-making forces, and the ideal failed to return to the monthly sales level of 50,000 units as expected, and the third seat that Weilai just got back in February was "returned" to Zerorun, Xiaopeng and Nezha did not exceed 10,000, only to maintain the lead in the world, and won 30,000+.
After a brief decline in February, deliveries in March exceeded 30,000 units to 31,727 units, up 50% month-on-month. So far, in the first quarter of this year, the total number of new AITO vehicles delivered under Hongmeng Zhixing has reached 85,842 units.
The new M7 continued to be strong, with 24,598 new vehicles delivered in March, up 33% month-on-month. Since its official launch in September last year and simultaneous start of deliveries, the cumulative delivery of this model has exceeded 120,000 units. On April 1, Wenjie lowered the price of the rear-wheel drive version of the new M7 entry model M7 Plus to 229,800 yuan, a decrease of 20,000 yuan. Considering the model's already excellent product strength, the price reduction is expected to further stimulate its sales growth.
The performance of the M9 also improved, with 6,243 new vehicles delivered in the month. According to official data, as of late March, the large orders for the M9 have exceeded 60,000 units. This means that under the condition that the production capacity is guaranteed, the delivery volume of the model will most likely continue to increase, thereby increasing the overall delivery volume of Wenjie.
Image source: AITO Automotive
Ideal delivered 28,984 new vehicles in March, up 39.2% year-on-year, and delivered a total of 80,400 units in the first quarter of this year, up more than 50% year-on-year. As of the end of March, the cumulative delivery volume of Ideal has reached 713,764 units, making it the first Chinese new power car company to reach the milestone of cumulative delivery of 700,000 units.
It is worth noting that Li Xiang, chairman and CEO of Li Auto, has previously said that with the release and delivery of new models (Li MEGA and 2024 Li L series models), its goal is to return to the level of 50,000 units per month in March. However, from a practical point of view, the performance of the Ideal MEGA did not meet expectations due to various reasons, which also made it far from reaching the monthly sales target of 50,000 units.
It is reported that at the beginning of April, Ideal announced the start of the matrix organization 2.0 upgrade, and at the same time carried out the adjustment of the organizational structure of multiple departments. It is mentioned that Ideal has officially established a new GTM (Go to Market) team, which is responsible for coordinating the implementation of the new product launch plan and being responsible for the market results. Some relevant media learned from insiders close to the change: "This adjustment is indeed related to MEGA. After the previous internal review, the company did not think too clearly in terms of user value and operational efficiency, and the implementation of decision-making was not in place. So it's important to keep your organization agile through upgrades. From this point of view, the ideal is also trying its best to "save itself".
In addition, the ideal L6, which has high hopes for ideals, has been officially launched on April 18. The new model is positioned as a five-seater mid-to-large SUV, focusing on the 200,000 to 300,000 yuan market. According to Ideal's previous expectations, Ideal L6 aims to sell 30,000 units per month.
Image source: Li Auto
Leap returned to third place, delivering 14,567 new vehicles in the month, up more than 136% year-on-year, and delivering a total of 33,410 vehicles in the first quarter. Leapmotor officials said that since the official launch of Leapmotor C10 on March 2, the new car effect has become more and more apparent. At the upcoming Beijing Auto Show, there will also be a "blockbuster new product" debut. Combined with market news, this new product should be a new medium and large SUV - C16, which will be the first time that the Leapmotor brand uses the 800V architecture, positioned as a large 6-seat flagship SUV, known as "the complete body of the four-leaf clover + LEAP 3.0 architecture".
NIO delivered 11,866 new vehicles in March, up 14.3% year-on-year and 45.9% month-on-month. In the first quarter, NIO delivered a total of 30,053 new vehicles, meeting its revised delivery forecast for the first quarter. At present, the switch of NIO's 2024 model has been basically completed, and the new car has arrived in stores. In addition, Gasgoo noted that NIO recently announced the launch of a subsidy of up to 1 billion yuan for the replacement of oil vehicles. From April 1, oil vehicle users who replace NIO's 2024 new cars will receive an additional 10,000 yuan of optional fund subsidies. Combined with other preferential policies, it is expected to boost its sales growth.
Xpeng delivered 9,026 vehicles in March, up 29% year-on-year and 99% month-on-month, and delivered a total of 21,821 new vehicles in the first quarter, up 20% year-on-year. Among them, Xpeng X9 delivered 3,946 units, and nearly 8,000 units were delivered in the first three months of its launch. Gasgoo Automotive Research Institute analysts said that the number of orders for Xpeng G6 and X9 models is still considerable, with the stable adjustment of channels, keeping up with production capacity, combined with factors such as recent price reductions and promotions, Xpeng's monthly sales are expected to gradually improve.
Image source: Xpeng Motors
Nezha was the bottom in March, with 8,317 new vehicles delivered in the month, down 17.55% year-on-year, and a total of 24,434 units delivered in the first quarter, down 6.65% year-on-year. Nezha Automobile said, "The Tongxiang plant is undergoing reconstruction and expansion projects, which will have a great impact on the output in March and April, and it is expected that the production capacity will be gradually increased from mid to late April, with an annual production capacity of 200,000 units." ”
The old brand can still play independently, and BYD has "killed" it again
According to the data of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, a total of 1.326 million Chinese brand passenger cars were sold in March, an increase of 67.6% month-on-month and 26.1% year-on-year, accounting for 59.3% of the total passenger car sales, and the market share increased by 7.2 percentage points over the same period last year.
Despite the fierce momentum of new power brands in the past two years, the old independent car companies are still the absolute main force supporting the independent sector, whether it is BYD, which has completely become a new energy car company, or Geely, Chery, Great Wall and other car companies that are fully transforming.
In the first two months of this year, BYD's sales declined, with cumulative sales from January to February at 323,804 units, down 6.14% year-on-year. Before that, BYD had monthly sales of more than 300,000 vehicles for many months, and monthly sales exceeded 340,000 units in December last year.
However, BYD quickly "killed" back, and won a monthly sales of 302,459 units in March, a sharp increase of 147.29% month-on-month, and an increase of 46.06% over the same period last year.
This performance is related to the successive launch of the "Glory Edition". In particular, the Qin PLUS DM-i Glory Edition, which started at 79,800 units, drove the Qin family to sell 40,569 units in March, a sharp increase of 150.6% month-on-month. In addition, Song, Tang, Han, Destroyer 05, Dolphin, Seagull and other models have also launched the Glory Edition, and the sales of multiple series of models exceeded 30,000 units in March.
In the market below 300,000, BYD's "Glory Edition" has killed all sides, and at the same time, in the high-end market, BYD has also made progress. The Denza, Formula Leopard and Yangwang brands sold 10,279 units, 3,550 units and 1,090 units respectively in March. Among them, Yangwang's first million-level model "Yangwang U8" reached the delivery of 5,000 new cars in this month, which took only 132 days, setting a record for the fastest sales of million-level SUV models in China.
Chery Group continued its growth trend, selling 181,585 vehicles in March, up 45.3% year-on-year, and 529,604 vehicles sold in the first quarter, up 60.3% year-on-year. It is important to know that even in the first two months of the sluggish overall performance of the auto market, Chery Group's sales growth rate reached 70%, far exceeding the industry growth rate of 11.1%.
Image source: Chery
It is also worth noting that in the first quarter of this year, Chery Group sold 60,133 new energy vehicles, doubling year-on-year, and exported 253,418 vehicles in the same period, a year-on-year increase of 40.9%.
Changan Automobile Group's overall sales in March reached 259,042 units, on an upward trend. Strong independence and weak joint ventures are the more obvious characteristics of Chang'an. In March, Changan's independent sales reached 220,742 units, an increase of more than 70% month-on-month, and an increase of 5.6% year-on-year. Specifically, its main sales force is mainly the CS family, eMotion series, Kaiyuan and Kaicheng, of which Kaicheng mainly focuses on the pickup truck market.
Geely Automobile Group's March sales were 150,835 units, up from the previous quarter, to 475,720 units in the first quarter, up nearly half of the year-on-year, mainly driven by the new energy and export segments.
According to the data, Geely's new energy sales in March reached 44,791 units, an increase of about 34% month-on-month, a year-on-year increase of more than 65%, and a new energy penetration rate of about 30%. From January to March, the cumulative sales volume of new energy vehicles was 144,125 units, an increase of about 143% year-on-year. Focusing on the export segment, Geely's overseas export sales reached a record high of 36,405 units in March, up more than 49% month-on-month and about 81% year-on-year. Cumulative sales from January to March reached 87,040 units, up 66% year-on-year.
Great Wall's sales in March were also 100,000+, a year-on-year increase of 11%, and sales from January to March reached 275,333 units, a year-on-year increase of 25.11%. In the month, Great Wall sold 21,882 new energy vehicles and 35,815 overseas sales, both up more than 60% year-on-year.
Comparatively speaking, SAIC and GAC's independent sectors performed slightly weaker in March. As far as SAIC is concerned, Zhiji has shown an upward trend, but its sales are not outstanding, and although SAIC Passenger Cars has risen sharply month-on-month, it is still lower than the same period last year. As far as GAC is concerned, the sales of GAC Passenger Car and Aion in March also increased month-on-month and decreased year-on-year, especially Aion, which was affected by the increase in online car-hailing labels, competing products and the intensification of price wars, and the cumulative sales in the first quarter fell by nearly 40% compared with the same period last year.
The performance of the joint venture is mixed, and SAIC-GM-Wuling is still the highest
In March, the joys and sorrows of joint ventures were not the same.
It is obvious from the statistical table that SAIC-Volkswagen and SAIC-GM-Wuling have relatively outstanding performance, firstly, the volume of the two is relatively larger, and secondly, both maintain growth in terms of monthly sales and cumulative sales. In fact, these two are also two of the few car companies that entered the top 10 sales in March.
Specifically, SAIC Volkswagen sold more than 90,000 units in March, up from the same period last year, and sales reached 248,059 units in the first quarter, an increase of nearly 10% from the same period last year. This is due to the help of a variety of models. It is reported that the sales of the new "outstanding" model of the Passat exceeded 53,000 units in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 74.6%, the sales volume of the new Tiguan L 2024 model reached 37,000 units, a significant increase of 51.6% over the same period last year, the ID.3 drove the sales of the ID. family to exceed 10,000 units in a single month, a year-on-year increase of 30%, and SAIC Volkswagen's sales of new energy vehicles in the first quarter reached 28,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 171.3%.
Image source: SAIC
With the recovery of new energy sales, SAIC-GM-Wuling's sales continued to rebound this year, with sales reaching 114,009 units in March, up more than half of the month-on-month and 25.98% year-on-year. It is reported that in its passenger car segment, new energy has accounted for more than 90%. The more popular ones are still Wuling Starlight, Wuling Binguo family and Wuling Hongguang MINI EV. In terms of cumulative sales, its cumulative sales in the first quarter have exceeded 224,000 units, an increase of 16.37% over the same period last year.
In March, Changan's joint venture brands picked up, and Changan Ford and Changan Mazda showed a clear upward trend. However, the volume of the two is not large, and the contribution to the overall sales of Changan is not large.
Dongfeng Nissan and Dongfeng Honda, both of which performed well, although their sales in March were slightly lower than the same period last year, but from the overall sales in the first quarter, they outperformed the same period last year, especially Dongfeng Honda, with sales in the first quarter increasing by 25.6% year-on-year.
In 2023, Dongfeng will launch the "Three-Year Action for Transformation and Upgrading" to build a "4+2" business layout in an orderly manner. Judging from the current performance, Dongfeng Nissan (including Nissan, Infiniti and Venucia brands) and Dongfeng Honda, as important components of this layout, are showing a rebounding trend. However, Dongfeng is still facing a lot of challenges, which cannot be ignored is that according to its latest financial report data, although Dongfeng's sales, revenue, and gross profit will increase year-on-year in 2023, its net profit will usher in a loss for the first time in ten years.
Looking at GAC's GAC Honda and GAC Toyota, the performance of the two is relatively consistent, with sales in March showing a significant increase month-on-month, and a year-on-year decline of more than 20%, focusing on the overall sales in the first quarter, both of which fell by more than two percent.
As mentioned earlier, in the car market below 300,000, the BYD Glory Edition is rolled out, and in this range, there are many other domestic brands, and the competition is extremely fierce, which is by no means good news for joint venture brands.
Taking GAC Toyota as an example, according to public information, its main models include economic models such as Zhixuan and Zhixiang, SUV series Highlander and Veranda, as well as mid-to-high-end sedans Camry and Leiling, covering the needs of 100,000 to 300,000 car buyers.
Image source: GAC Toyota
In the SUV field, GAC Toyota faces competition from a variety of new energy vehicles such as Tang DM-i, Lynk & Co 08 EM-P, and Wenjie M5. In the sedan sector, although the Camry is GAC Toyota's best-selling mid-size car brand, the growth of domestic new energy sedan brands has gradually eaten into its market share. In order to boost sales, GAC Toyota has launched a new generation of Camry, but judging from the performance so far, the performance of the new generation Camry after the price reduction does not seem to be enough to surprise in the case of more and more mid-size car choices.
In fact, zooming in to the entire joint venture camp, the decline in the performance of joint venture brands is not only reflected in the weak competition of its new energy vehicles, but also shows the weakening momentum of the fuel vehicle market. From this point of view, the joint venture brand should keep the market below 300,000, and the new energy sector is bound to be strengthened.
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