AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/09 Report--

Today, the Federation of passengers released that the sales volume of narrow passenger car manufacturers ranked KuaiBao in February, and the top ten car manufacturers also officially confirmed. Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, retail sales in the national passenger car market in February 2020 were only 252000 units, down 78.5% from the same month last year, compared with the 19% drop in February last year due to the Spring Festival factor. It is an ultra-low base, so it shows that the car market under the influence of this year's epidemic is seriously abnormal. As the impact of epidemic factors is far greater than the interference of Spring Festival factors, it has dropped by 41% from January to February this year compared with the same period last year.

According to the retail sales statistics of the Federation of passengers, sales of all car companies shrank sharply in February this year, and it is inevitable because of the greater impact of the epidemic. The comprehensive sales rankings of various companies have also undergone great changes, among which the top two are still not occupied by FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC-Volkswagen, and their own brands have been promoted. Including Geely Automobile in third place, Changan Automobile in Fifth place and Chery Automobile in 10th place. It is worth noting, however, that Great Wall and Honda, which used to be at the top of the list, did not make it into the top 10, while Beijing Mercedes-Benz was once again in the top position.

Among the three joint venture giants, FAW-Volkswagen, SAIC-Volkswagen and SAIC-GM brands have been affected by the market environment in 2019, which has led to many changes in the ranking. Among them, FAW-Volkswagen has helped SAIC-Volkswagen occupy the first place for nearly a year because its Volkswagen brand does not expand the SUV model layout and Audi brand growth, and as the Jetta brand independently attacks the low-end car market. The momentum remained strong until January and February this year. Although it was affected by the epidemic in February this year, more than 30,000 vehicles were sold, accounting for 11.98% of the market share in February, up from 10.9% in January this year.

In contrast, the performance of SAIC-Volkswagen is relatively low. The previous "magic car" Passat also caused a huge shock in sales because of the blow of China Insurance Research. In January this year, it was only 13600 vehicles, a month-on-month decline of more than 50%. As a result, sales plummeted 40.5% in January, just 113000 vehicles, even much lower than the 20% decline in the overall market. Coupled with the continuous shrinkage of its Skoda brand, it is precisely the distance between SAIC-Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen. However, affected by the epidemic in February this year, SAIC-Volkswagen resumed work later than FAW-Volkswagen.

SAIC General Motors, one of the three joint ventures, has fluctuated its rankings in the past two years, thanks to a sharp price cut to clear its inventory, but at the same time, because its low-end models are equipped with three-cylinder engines, more and more consumers are reluctant to buy them, making its sales extremely unstable and falling behind Geely's own brand for many times, so that under the influence of the overall market in February this year, it still lags behind Geely in fourth place.

Compared with many other car companies, Geely still showed "the strongest autonomy" under February, becoming one of the companies with cumulative sales of 20,000 vehicles, accounting for 7.8% of the total market share, up from 6.4% in January this year. At the same time, two other independent brands, Chang'an Automobile and Chery Automobile, both moved up the rankings, ranking fifth and tenth respectively, with a market share of 5.2 per cent and 4.02 per cent, respectively. Obviously, under this year's epidemic, independent brands are superior to many joint venture brands.

For Japanese brands that have long occupied the top 10 seats, only Dongfeng Nissan and Guangzhou Auto Toyota appeared in the top 10 in February this year. Dongfeng's daily production and sales fell the most in February, falling from more than 100,000 last month to about 10,000 this year, down 87.5% from the previous month, well below the February average.

As Dongfeng Honda is the hardest hit area of the epidemic, according to the local guidelines for epidemic prevention and control, enterprises are allowed to resume work on and after March 11, so significant changes in production and sales are inevitable. Guangzhou Automobile Honda only began to resume production on February 17, and it took less than half a month to achieve sales.

However, in the environment most affected by the epidemic this month, although sales fell sharply as a result, it was able to maintain a large market share of 4.4 per cent, even higher than the 3.9 per cent market share, which rose 19 per cent year-on-year last month.

In fact, it is unexpected that sales fell sharply in February as a result of the epidemic. The Federation said that due to the sudden novel coronavirus epidemic, dealers across the country basically closed their stores and completely stopped the operation of sales services since the Spring Festival holiday, resulting in almost zero retail sales in the first three weeks of February.

And during the Spring Festival, the vehicle driving rate of users is extremely low, so that the maintenance demand is not strong, so that many dealers comprehensively balance the costs and benefits, the enthusiasm to return to work is not high. As well as the suspension of vehicle registration procedures in some areas, and the delay in delivery in February, restraining the enthusiasm of car purchases.

For the market outlook for March this year, in the view of the Federation of passengers, there are 22 working days in March, one more day than in March 19, so it will be conducive to the recovery of production and sales, and the suppressed February market will also show signs of recovery in the first half of March this year. However, at present, many people still choose to return to work at home, and major schools have not yet opened, so the demand for car use has not yet been opened; in addition, some new cars have been on the market, but the inventory of February has not been alleviated. As a result, the pace of restocking at most dealers is slow.

According to the conjecture of the Federation of passengers, according to the normal judgment of lifting the epidemic at the end of April, let's take a look at the fact that the car market was depressed in February and exceeded expectations, and the car market recovered slowly from March to April, so it is only possible to return to normal after May.

Although with the gradual weakening of the domestic epidemic, many cities have successively launched relevant stimulus policies to promote the automobile consumption economy, and with the promotion of the government, accelerate the recovery of the automobile manufacturing industry, but judging from the current environment, it will take time for the domestic automobile market to return to normal.

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