In recent years, China's single car market has undergone great changes: more and more young people are buying cars at the single stage when they are just starting to work, rather than waiting until they get married a few years later, a trend that continues to expand the number of users in the single car market; At the same time, the internal structure of the single car market is also accelerating the middle-aged, highly educated, etc., which has enhanced the gold content of the single car market.
At present, many car companies have launched personalized brands, and these measures will continue to enhance the research value of the single car market, which is more preferred for personalized brands. However, the thinking of most car companies to build personalized brands is not based on user segmentation such as singles, and this status quo will further strengthen the urgency of research on the single car market.
The research data of the 2024 edition of the user segmentation topic selection of China's passenger car market by the Bitcar Research Institute is mainly based on online research, with a total sample size of more than 60,000 in 2023, and the offline survey sample size in 2023 will exceed 10,000 based on the offline research data of Bitcar Big Data and BitAuto Research Institute.
In 2023, the terminal sales of China's single car market will rise significantly to 4.66 million units, and it will continue to accumulate the strength to challenge the dominance of the family car market, and can be called a new force in the global car market
In the past decade, factors such as the prevalence of late marriage and late childbearing, rising housing prices, the continuous increase in the number of college graduates, the increasingly serious phenomenon of overtime, and the rising cost of wedding bride price have greatly expanded the single group and indirectly promoted the growth of the single car market. In 2014, the sales contribution of the single car market was less than 2 million, and then continued to grow, exceeding 3 million in 2017, and then being relatively flat for three years, suddenly rising to 3.8 million in 2021, exceeding 4 million in 2022, and rising to 4.66 million in 2023, an increase of 11.63%, and the market share rose to 21.56%.
In the past decade, China's auto market has been dominated by the family car market, and the single car market has been "covered" as a whole, failing to fully demonstrate its charm and strength. However, China's single-player car market has gradually approached the center stage from a marginal car market in just ten years, and the scale of 4.66 million units in 2023 has surpassed Germany and approached Japan, becoming a new force in the global car market.
Theoretically, China's single car market has the strength to cultivate high-volume brands and popular products, and the only thing missing is a leader, a "Prince Charming" who can completely ignite this pile of dry firewood.
Women are the key force driving the growth of the single car market, contributing 42.95% of sales in 2023, accelerating the trend of mobility and electrification in the single car market, and laying the groundwork for the purchase of models such as the Xiaomi SU7
Although the single-rider market is still dominated by men, women have emerged as the main growth driver. From 2021 to 2023, the sales contribution will rise sharply from 35% to 42.95%, which is closely related to the accelerated influx of single men into the used car market in recent years and the fact that single women still have a soft spot for new cars.
As women pay more attention to transportation, the feminization trend of the single car market will promote the transportation of the single car market. From 2021 to 2023, the demand for transportation in the single car market will rise sharply from 33.94% to 45.83%, becoming the first car purchase demand in the single car market.
At the same time, since electric vehicles are more suitable for transportation, the transportation of single car markets has also promoted the electrification of single car markets. From 2021 to 2023, the proportion of new energy in the single car market will rise sharply from 7.01% to 38.45%, of which pure electric products will rise from 5.17% to 27.31%. Based on the scale of 4.66 million units in 2023, the single car market will contribute 1.79 million units to new energy vehicles and 1.27 million units to pure electric vehicles.
In 2023, a large number of electric vehicle brands such as Zeekr, NIO, Xpeng, Zhiji, and AVATR will only sell 1.2 million units in China, or even less than 100,000 units, which means that the single car market has significant value for the above brands, as well as the Xiaomi SU7, which will be officially launched on March 28, 2024. According to this reasoning, the rapid rise of Tesla in recent years is closely related to the single car market.
Middle-aged and middle-class promote the high-end and large-scale car market of single cars, laying the groundwork for personalized cars such as Xiaomi to invest more than 200,000 yuan
Although the main body of the single car market is still young and working-class, the proportion of middle-aged and middle-class people is increasing. From 2021 to 2023, the middle-aged proportion of the single car market will rise from 25.04% to 26.89%, and the proportion of the middle class will increase from 28.48% to 31.94%, which is closely related to the fact that high-income industries such as the Internet and finance have completely fallen into the hardest hit areas of late marriage and late childbearing in recent years.
As middle-aged and middle-class users have a higher probability of buying high-end brands and large cars, the middle-aged and middle-class single car market will increase the proportion of single car markets buying high-end brands and medium-sized and above large cars. From 2021 to 2023, the proportion of single users buying high-end brands will increase from 15.34% to 25.04%, and the proportion of buying medium-sized and above large cars will increase from 24.06% to 36.63%.
In recent years, Tesla, Weilai, Zhiji, Zeekr, AVATAR, Extreme Fox, Xiaopeng and a large number of other electric vehicle brands, all focus on medium-sized and above large cars, all choose to cut from the high-end car market of more than 200,000 yuan, theoretically will benefit from the single car market, but in fact, only Tesla benefits, Lei Jun, who is full of personal charm, and Xiaomi, which has a strong brand appeal, can become new beneficiaries?
The highly educated and urbanized car market has boosted the single-person car market to continuously stimulate personalized consumption, and accumulated strength for the emergence of a wave of personalized consumption in China's auto market
Since 2020, the number of fresh college graduates in China has accounted for more than half of the number of births of the same age, coupled with the fact that most colleges and universities are in big cities and most college students are employed in big cities after graduation, etc., jointly consolidating the high education and dominant position of China's single car market. From 2021 to 2023, the proportion of single car buyers with a college degree or above will increase from 63.28% to 75.99%, and the proportion of first-tier, new first-tier and second-tier cities will increase from 66.68% to 72.76%.
As users with higher education and living in big cities are more prevalent in late marriage and late childbearing, and prefer personalized products such as sports, fashion, and technology, the high education and urbanization of the single car market will continue to stimulate the personalized consumption of the single car market. In 2023, compared with the broader market, the proportion of single users who buy personalized products such as streamlined sports, exquisite fashion, small and cute, and off-road toughness is higher.
In 2023, users of a large number of electric vehicle brands such as Xiaopeng, Weilai, Zeekr, Zhiji, AVATAR, and Xiaopeng are mainly users who are highly educated and working in big cities, and theoretically the above-mentioned car companies in the initial stage should spare no effort to seize the growing wave of personalization, but in fact, many car companies have chosen a diversified route like mainstream large car companies, such as Xiaopeng, Weilai, Zeekr, etc., not only personalized P7, ET5, 007 and other products, but also mainstream household G9, ES8, 009 and other products. The same question will also torture Xiaomi Auto, how to concentrate and follow the trend in the early stage of development. At present, only a very small number of car companies such as Ideal and Tesla have better coordinated short-term and long-term strategic deployment to maximize benefits.