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Under the background of the gradual recovery of the domestic auto market, the 2020 Chengdu Auto Show held on July 24 attracted German, Japanese, French, Korean, independent and joint venture brands to participate in the exhibition, and a number of brands have brought a number of global or domestic first-launch models to promote the upgrading of the automobile industry in the second half of the year.

The 2020 Chengdu Auto Show is seen as a sharp tool for auto companies to boost morale in the second half of the year. Of course, many auto companies are forced to be absent from the auto show for various reasons. According to official statistics, the number of car brands participating in the 2020 Chengdu Auto Show dropped to more than 120 from more than 130 last year, while more than a dozen car brands, such as brilliance China, Southeast Motor, Dongfeng Fashion, Dongfeng Fengshen, DS, Renault, Skyline Automobile and Future Automobile, were absent last year.

The impact of the epidemic, coupled with the downward stack of the car market, 2020 is destined to be a difficult year for car companies, with a double decline in sales and performance forcing some brands to "leave". Judging from the recent development of the above absent car companies, there is no doubt that they are absent from the auto show because of weak sales and performance, or the absence of brand-new products.

For example, the independent brand brilliance China was absent as early as last year's Guangzhou Auto Show, and there are few reports about brilliance China after 2020, so it is difficult to see reports about new products. It is understood that brilliance China currently has only four models on sale, and brilliance China sold only 3186 models in the first half of this year. The lack of new products and technical updates is the main reason for brilliance's launch.

If the absence of brilliance China is to be expected, then the absence of three car companies, Southeast Motor, Dongfeng Fengshen and Dongfeng Fengxing, is somewhat surprising, although these three car companies have no outstanding achievements in sales and technology, but there are also more serious negative events, which belong to independent brands that are relatively "low-key and silent".

Through the inquiry, we can see that the absence of these three independent car companies may be helpless. According to the data, the cumulative sales of Southeast cars in the first half of this year were only 6317, while those of Dongfeng Fengshen and Dongfeng Fashion were 29459 and 41104 respectively. The performance of the three independent brands in the first half of the year was mediocre, and the reason for the absence can only be temporarily explained as focusing on the larger Beijing Auto Show and Guangzhou Auto Show.

In addition to the absence of their own brands, the absence of joint venture brands Dongfeng Renault and DS is also saddening, but the absence of these two joint venture brands from the Chengdu auto show is also reasonable.

As early as April, Renault Group announced its "strategic adjustment" in China. In the future, the focus of Renault Group's development in China will shift to the field of light commercial vehicles and electric vehicles, while Dongfeng Renault will withdraw from China because of its persistent sluggish sales. As for the absence of the DS brand is also due to brand reasons, Changan Automobile and PSA Group have sold Changan PSA shares at the end of last year. As Changan PSA officially changed its name to Shenzhen Baoneng, DS also exists in name only in China. Although PSA Group has repeatedly stressed that it will not withdraw from the Chinese market, in view of the current development situation, the time to stay in the Chinese market may not be very long.

In addition to independent brands and joint venture brands, Chengdu Auto Show has also attracted new car-building forces to participate in the show, but the number has decreased compared with last year.

At present, automobile brands all over the world have entered the field of new energy vehicles, increasing their R & D and investment in electrification, but at this year's Chengdu Auto Show, only six new car-building forces, Polestar, Lulai, Xiaopeng, Weimar, Aichi and Cyrus, came to participate in the exhibition.

Among them, "traditional car-building new power" Polestar participated in the Chengdu auto show for the first time, bringing its first production model, pure electric coupe Polestar 2 and hybrid GT coupe Polestar 1; "representative of carbuilding new power" NIO and Xiaopeng brought products such as Xilai EC6 and Xiaopeng P7 to standard Tesla models; and Weima, Aichi and Cyrus brought a number of first models, including Weimar EX5-Z, Aichi U6 ion and Cyrus SF5.

By comparison, it is found that a total of 8 new car-building brands came to the exhibition last year, including NIO, Weimar, Skyline, Aichi, Future, Xiaopeng and Cyrus, while Skyline and Future Motors are absent this year. Some analysts say that the absence of the car-building new forces from the auto show is related to the current difficult situation of the domestic car market. The new car-building forces accelerated the reshuffle in the first half of this year, and the successive collapse of Boxun, Sailin and Baiteng is enough to prove the difficulties of car-making enterprises. although NIO, Xiaopeng and other leading car-making enterprises, but in the context of sales growth and accelerated financing can also see the arduous survival pressure.

According to the statistics of the China Automobile Association, sales of passenger cars in China in the first half of 2020 were 7.873 million, down 22.4% from the same period last year, of which sales of Chinese brand passenger cars fell 29.0% to 2.854 million and sales of new energy vehicles fell 37.4% to 393000.

In the first half of 2020, among the bottom 40 car companies in sales, independent brands Zhongtai Automobile, brilliance Automobile, Southeast Automobile, Haima Automobile, joint venture brands Dongfeng Renault, DS, car building brands Hezhong, Zero running, Yundu, Aichi, Electric Cafe and so on are all on the list. In fact, the knockout stage for weak brands began as early as 2019, but this year the epidemic has further accelerated the trend of elimination.

CCTV has quoted industry insiders to analyze and report that at present, China's automobile industry is in a period of integration, and China's automobile industry, like household appliances and mobile phones, will go through a relatively tragic process of integration. Leading car companies will have more competitive advantages under the scale effect. It means that the concentration of the market continues to integrate to the head enterprises, while weak brands are difficult to avoid the fate of being eliminated.

As the first four A-class auto shows in China this year, Chengdu Auto Show is regarded by auto companies as a "weather vane" to attack the auto market in the second half of the year. According to reason, auto companies have no reason not to attach importance to it, but some brands have no choice but to be absent, which also reflects the current situation of the brand from the side.

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