On April 11, the Federation of passenger cars released the analysis of the national passenger car market in March 2022. In March, the retail sales of passenger car market reached 1.579 million, a year-on-year decrease of 10.5% and a month on month increase of 25.6%. In the first quarter, a total of 4.915 million vehicles were retailed, a year-on-year decrease of 4.5%, a year-on-year decrease of 230000 vehicles, and the overall trend was lower than expected.
The retail trend in March was quite differentiated. The top ten automobile enterprises in terms of sales volume are: FAW Volkswagen, Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited(000625) , Byd Company Limited(002594) automobile, Geely Automobile, GAC Toyota, SAIC Volkswagen, Great Wall Motor Company Limited(601633) , SAIC GM Wuling, SAIC GM and Dongfeng Nissan.
Among the joint venture brands, only GAC Toyota achieved year-on-year growth. The market share of independent brands reached 48.5%, with a year-on-year increase of 8.8 percentage points. Except for Great Wall Motor Company Limited(601633) , Chang’an, Byd Company Limited(002594) , Geely, etc. all achieved year-on-year growth. Throughout the first quarter, the market share of independent brands increased to 45.9%.
The most outstanding performance is Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited(000625) , which not only ranks second in retail, but also ranks first in the wholesale market.
Byd Company Limited(002594) also broke the 100000 sales mark in March, becoming the fastest growing auto enterprise in the list with an increase of 161.4%.
Compared with the first two, Geely’s voice is much smaller, but it also achieved a positive growth of 3.8%. Unlike Byd Company Limited(002594) fully investing in the development of new energy, Geely focuses on developing new energy and hybrid while maintaining the proportion of original fuel vehicles, and chooses “walking on two legs”.
The strong rise of independent brands corresponds to the plight of old joint venture brands. In the first quarter of this year, the market share of German cars fell to 20%, Japanese cars fell to 20.9%, and the market share of American cars was less than 10%.
Although FAW Volkswagen ranks first in retail sales, it has fallen by nearly 40% year-on-year. Due to the impact of the epidemic in March, some factories reduced or even stopped production. Among them, the output of Changchun base decreased by more than 60% year-on-year in March; The production capacity of Chengdu, Tianjin and Qingdao bases has also been reduced to varying degrees. It can be seen that the epidemic has a great impact on FAW Volkswagen.
SAIC Volkswagen’s situation is even less ideal. In March, the retail sales volume was only 78000, down 34.6% year-on-year, ranking sixth, which was surpassed by many independent brands. SAIC GM, which also belongs to Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) , fell to No. 9. Coupled with the current epidemic in Shanghai, SAIC’s joint venture brands will face unprecedented challenges.
In terms of the new energy vehicle market, independent brands gained significant growth, with a penetration rate of 46% in March, and the performance of mainstream joint venture brands was much worse, with a penetration rate of only 4.3%.
Byd Company Limited(002594) pure electric and plug-in hybrid dual drive firmly occupy the leading position of independent brand new energy; Traditional automobile enterprises represented by Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) and Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) are relatively outstanding in the new energy sector.
There are 13 enterprises with wholesale sales exceeding 10000 vehicles, an increase of 2 over the same period last year, including six independent brands of Byd Company Limited(002594) , Chery Automobile, Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited(000625) , Great Wall Motor Company Limited(601633) , Geely Automobile and SAIC passenger car.
The general rise of independent brands benefits from the collective decline of joint venture brands to a certain extent. However, in the face of the epidemic and the external situation of “lack of core and short lithium”, it can be seen that independent brands have stronger ability to resist risks. Mainstream joint venture brands also need to further strengthen their layout in the field of new energy and gradually enhance the recognition of the market.
