AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)07/09 Report--

The past of June means that the achievements of major car companies in the first half of the year will soon be announced. Under the market hit by the epidemic, all major brands are bound to have a hard time in the first half of this year, but thanks to the effective control of the epidemic in China, signs of recovery in the domestic automobile market have gradually become obvious, especially in the luxury car market.

According to the latest report of the Federation of passengers, retail sales of passenger cars in China in June were 1.654 million, up 2.9% from May and down 6.2% from the same month last year. Although the market showed a slight decline, the main reason was that the retail base was too high due to the sale of goods at low prices in the same period last year. In fact, the trend of car sales in June was relatively normal.

Judging from the performance of the luxury market in June this year, luxury car retail sales rose 27% in June from a year earlier, up 9% from a month earlier, and the market share hit an all-time high of 14.9%. In the previous June, the luxury market growth figures were 5%,-75.2%,-20%, 16%, 28% and 27%, respectively.

It can be seen that with the upgrading of high-end consumer demand and luxury model promotion discount prices, the price advantage has quickly led the market segment to warm up. Statistics show that the average sales price of luxury brands has dropped from 350000 yuan in 2017 to 335000 yuan this year.

Thanks to this, luxury brands all achieved varying degrees of growth in June this year. Although first-tier luxury brands have not yet announced their specific sales in China in June, according to the data performance of Mercedes-Benz and BMW in the second quarter compared with the previous year, growth has been achieved by 21.6% and 17.1% respectively, with obvious signs of recovery. FAW-Volkswagen Audi sold 58788 vehicles in June, up 22.5% from a year earlier.

In addition to Lexus, Cadillac and Volvo brands also rose year-on-year, with Cadillac selling 23000 units in China in June, up 8.4% from a year earlier, while Volvo sold 15088 vehicles on Chinese mainland in June, up 14% from a year earlier.

Judging from the cumulative sales in the first half of the year, Mercedes-Benz returned to the top of this year's luxury car list with 34067 vehicles. During the period of the greatest impact of the epidemic this year, the sales of the Beijing Mercedes-Benz brand went against the trend continuously. Although it was negative growth, its market share was relatively high. Due to other luxury brands, and even into the top 10 domestic passenger car sales list, sales are better than many mainstream joint venture brands.

The BMW brand helped it win the top spot as a luxury brand in 2019 with more models and profits last year, but this year it was slightly lower than the Mercedes-Benz brand and did not recover until April. In the first half of this year, luxury brands ranked second with 329069, with a negative growth of 6 per cent compared with the same period last year, but an outstanding performance for the domestic market as a whole.

As for the Audi brand's performance this year is also stable, since the second half of 2019, new products rely on greater concessions to improve brand competitiveness, has also been rising, its Audi Q5 and Audi A6 models have repeatedly occupied the first place in high-end models, but affected by this year's epidemic, sales have also been affected, 301817 of sales in the first half of the year did not open a large gap with BMW, down-3.20% year-on-year.

Sales relative to second-tier luxury brands have fallen because Cadillac stopped production of its two main models, the XTS and ATSL, last year, and the terminal discounts for new models have not been fully released. In terms of sales in the first five months of this year, there is a clear gap between Cadillac and the Lexus brand, so it is believed that Cadillac will miss the first place in second-tier luxury in the first half of this year, but it is still higher than Volvo's 65601 vehicles.

Overall, as the epidemic is gradually brought under control, luxury brands have rebounded significantly since they suffered a sharp setback in February, achieving year-on-year growth in April, May and June. According to the analysis of the Federation, the share of high-end sales of more than 250000 has continued to grow recently, while the share of entry-level passenger car sales has fallen sharply.

The Federation believes that the purchasing power of consumers is gradually upgrading, especially now the proportion of the purchase group is gradually increasing, and the tendency of the average price of consumption to go up year by year is very obvious. But for the luxury market, the "Matthew effect" will be equally obvious, concentration will be higher and higher, strong brands will continue to grow, luxury brands will continue to prosper, and some marginal brands will struggle.

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