On March 8, the latest data released by the passenger Federation showed that in February this year, the retail volume of China’s passenger car market was 1.246 million, a year-on-year increase of 4.2%; The wholesale volume was 1.455 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 26.9%, with a strong overall trend.
Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the national passenger car market information joint committee, said that although the Spring Festival holiday caused a slight loss in vehicle production, the production and sales growth of the car market was relatively good in February. In addition, the gradual improvement of chip supply also promoted the steady development of production and sales of China’s passenger car market in February.
In February, the market performance of China’s mainstream joint venture brand passenger cars was outstanding, and the sharp year-on-year decline in sales was alleviated. According to the data of the passenger Federation, in February, the retail volume of passenger cars of mainstream joint venture brands in China was 550000, a year-on-year decrease of 1%.
“In February, the retail sales of joint venture brand vehicles showed the development trend of low base and high growth in the same period. At the beginning of last year, the joint venture brand was greatly affected by the shortage of chips, and a large amount of destocking led to relatively high retail pressure in February last year.” Cui Dongshu analyzed that at the beginning of this year, with the gradual improvement of the impact of chip shortage, the overall production and sales of some joint ventures returned to a relatively good state.
From the performance of joint venture brands in February, the retail of Japanese brand passenger cars is more prominent. In February, the retail share of Japanese brand passenger cars was 23.1%, with a year-on-year increase of 1.6 percentage points; The retail share of German brand passenger cars was 20.5%, a year-on-year decrease of 4 percentage points; The retail share of American brand passenger cars was 9.1%, down 0.6 percentage points year-on-year.
As for the reasons for the strong year-on-year retail performance of Japanese brand passenger cars in February, Cui Dongshu analyzed that this was mainly due to the fact that Toyota and other enterprises were hindered in production due to the epidemic in January this year, resulting in retail shortage. However, this laid a foundation for the good performance of Japanese brand passenger car market in February.
In terms of luxury cars, the trend in January was not significantly stronger than that in February. In February, the retail volume of luxury brand passenger cars was 160000, down 3% year-on-year and 44% month on month.
Compared with mainstream joint venture brands and luxury brands, China’s independent brand passenger cars maintain a high growth trend. In February, the retail volume of China’s own brand passenger cars was 540000, with a year-on-year increase of 14% and a market share of 44%, with a year-on-year increase of 4.3 percentage points. From January to February this year, the cumulative share of China’s independent brand passenger cars reached 45%, an increase of 2.8 percentage points compared with the same period in 2021.
Judging from the manufacturer’s narrow passenger car retail sales ranking in February, Byd Company Limited(002594) surpassed SAIC Volkswagen with a sales volume of 89000 vehicles, second only to FAW Volkswagen with a sales volume of 105000 vehicles. “Independent brands have gained significant growth in the new energy vehicle market, so Byd Company Limited(002594) and other traditional car enterprise brands have increased significantly year-on-year.” Cui Dongshu said.
In fact, due to the impact of the sharp decline of subsidies on the price rise of its new energy vehicles, Shanxi Guoxin Energy Corporation Limited(600617) passenger car orders were relatively weak in late January, but there was a significant recovery in February. According to the data of the passenger Federation, in February, the retail sales volume of Shanxi Guoxin Energy Corporation Limited(600617) passenger cars was 272000, with a year-on-year increase of 180.5% and a penetration rate of 21.8%, 13 percentage points higher than the penetration rate of 8.1% in the same period last year.
Among them, the penetration rate of new energy passenger vehicles in independent brands is 41.9%; The penetration rate of new energy vehicles in luxury vehicles is 17.4%; The penetration rate of new energy vehicles in mainstream joint venture brands is only 3.5%.
In February this year, there were five new energy vehicle enterprises whose wholesale sales exceeded 10000 vehicles, two more than the same period last year. In addition to Byd Company Limited(002594) , Tesla and SAIC GM Wuling, the two new enterprises with monthly sales of more than 10000 vehicles are Chery and Geely. The sales volume of these five enterprises in February was about 87500, 56500, 26000, 14300 and 10300 respectively.
For the development of Shanxi Guoxin Energy Corporation Limited(600617) automobile market in the middle of this year, the passenger Federation believes that there are many uncertain pressures, especially the huge pressure caused by the shortage of lithium and other resources. However, Cui Dongshu also said that the market penetration of Shanxi Guoxin Energy Corporation Limited(600617) passenger cars will increase rapidly in the first half of this year, while it will be relatively stable in the second half of this year, showing the characteristics of phased improvement.
With regard to the impact of rising oil prices on the new energy vehicle market, Cui Dongshu believes that rising oil prices will play a good role in promoting the development of the global new energy vehicle market, especially accelerating the iteration of plug-in hybrid vehicles to traditional fuel vehicles, which will bring some increment to the new energy vehicle market.
