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China's automobile sales have declined for two consecutive years. Under this background, German brands and Japanese brands sell better and better, while independent brands, American brands and French brands decline to varying degrees.

According to the statistics of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in 2019, the production and sales of automobiles in China completed 25.721 million and 25.769 million respectively, with a year-on-year decrease of 7.5% and 8.2% respectively. The pressure faced by China's automobile industry has further increased, with negative growth in production, sales and major economic benefit indicators of the industry. However, from the monthly trend of production and marketing, China's automobile production and marketing situation is gradually tending to improve.

Among them, passenger car production and sales decline is greater than the overall automobile. In 2019, the production and sales of passenger cars in China completed 21.36 million and 21.444 million respectively, with a year-on-year decrease of 9.2% and 9.6% respectively.

Self-determination falls below 40%

According to the market share of each faction announced by the association, the market share of self-owned brand passenger cars still ranks first, but the share has fallen below 40%. In 2019, 8.407 million self-owned brand passenger cars were sold, down 15.8% year-on-year, accounting for 39.2% of total passenger car sales, down 2.9 percentage points from 2018.

Entering 2019, the survival of independent brands is worrying, news of layoffs, arrears of wages and bankruptcy frequently broke out, and many independent brands have fallen into production suspension and are facing the risk of withdrawing from the market. However, the head independent brand is still strong, Geely, Great Wall, Chang 'an, SAIC, Chery, etc. are stable market share, even appeared growth.

From different fields, autonomous vehicles declined significantly, falling more than the overall level. In 2019, the sales volume of self-owned brand cars was 2.046 million, down 15.2% year-on-year, accounting for 19.9% of the total sales volume of cars and 1.1% lower than that of the same period last year; the sales volume of self-owned brand SUV was 4.92 million, down 15% year-on-year, accounting for 52.6% of the total sales volume of SUV, down 5.4% compared with the same period last year; The sales volume of self-owned brand MPV was 1.041 million units, down 21.6% year-on-year, accounting for 75.3% of the total MPV sales volume, down 1.3 percentage points from the same period last year.

The more German-Japanese, the better.

In 2019, German brands and Japanese brands grew against the trend, with sales reaching a new high and market share further increased. Among them, the market share of German brands increased from 21.4% to 24.2%, up 2.8 percentage points, becoming the biggest winner last year. The market share of Japanese brands increased from 18.8% to 21.3%, up 2.5 percentage points.

In terms of German brands, FAW-Volkswagen sales reached 2129976 vehicles in 2019, with a year-on-year growth of 3.8%, including 1398088 Volkswagen brands and 688888 Audi brands. SAIC Volkswagen sold 2 million vehicles, including 1.723 million Volkswagen brands and 278,000 Skoda brands.

In addition, BMW sold 723680 vehicles in China in 2019, up 13.1% year-on-year; Mercedes-Benz sold 702088 vehicles, up 4% year-on-year.

Japanese brands, Toyota and Honda sales higher. Toyota's sales in China reached 1.6207 million units in 2019, up 9% year-on-year and rising to the top of Japanese manufacturers. Honda China's sales figures rose 8.5% year-on-year to 1.554 million units, also hitting a new high. Nissan vehicles were 1.547 million, down 1.1% year-on-year.

In terms of the whole Chinese market in 2019, German brands and Japanese brands are incremental markets, while the survival pressure of other factions increases.

Legal brands face crisis

After the above brands divided up 84.7% of the Chinese automobile market, the remaining brands only had 15.3% of the market space. According to statistical data analysis, American brands ranked fourth, with market share falling from 10.5% to 8.9%, a decrease of 1.6 percentage points, including sales of Ford, Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and other brands.

GM's sales of new vehicles in China fell 15.3% year-on-year to 3.09 million units in 2019, falling for the second consecutive year. Among them, Buick brand 850,000 vehicles, down more than 15% year-on-year; Chevrolet annual sales reached 418,000 vehicles, down 20% year-on-year; Cadillac sales reached 213717 vehicles, down 6.3% year-on-year. In terms of Ford vehicles, Chang 'an Ford sold 183987 vehicles in 2019, down 51.3% year-on-year.

The market share of legal brands has dropped to only 0.6% in 2019, sales are still declining further, performance is very declining, facing delisting crisis. DPCA owns Dongfeng Peugeot and Dongfeng Citroen brands, with cumulative sales of 113579 vehicles in 2019, down 55% year-on-year. Dongfeng Renault sold 18607 vehicles in 2019, down 63% year-on-year. Moreover, the sales volume of the high-end DS brand was negligible.

Even after a bleak 2019, PSA and the joint venture company DPCA have not given up. At present, Dongfeng and PSA have reached a consensus and signed an agreement to expand business cooperation in China. The joint venture period will be extended for ten years to 2037. Both parties will further explore the introduction of a new brand. Dongfeng said,"With the deepening of cooperation between Dongfeng and PSA, we expect the joint venture to continue to make good progress in China."

2019 is the second year of sales decline in China's auto market, brand differentiation is further highlighted, and the change and development of factions and brands may be its future trend. Some brands have been vigorously developed and have unlimited prospects, but others are on the verge of delisting.

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