AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/16 Report--

With the acceleration of consumption upgrading in the domestic automobile market, luxury brands have maintained a high growth trend in the first half of the year, even after the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. After three consecutive months of year-on-year growth after March, the traditional off-season market still maintained a growth rate of nearly 30 per cent in July.

According to the latest insurance data in July, domestic mainstream luxury brands sold a total of 314900 vehicles, an increase of 28.8% over the same period last year, which is much higher than the 13.4% increase in the passenger car market. According to the market share of luxury brands this month, it remains at an all-time high of 19.2%.

Although luxury brands generally achieved year-on-year growth in July, there are still "pessimistic" luxury brands in joint ventures and imported luxury brands, with sales that month underperforming their own brands and showing signs of decline.

From the perspective of various luxury brands, the BBA brand still maintains a high market share, and the cumulative sales of the three car companies in China are more than 60%, which means that the first-tier luxury brand effect is still valid in China. Among them, Mercedes-Benz brand with 74900 new cars far surpassed other brands to become a single-month effect, an increase of 25.1% over the same period last year. The BMW and Audi brands lagged behind Mercedes-Benz by 69500 and 63600 respectively, up 26.5% and 22.7% respectively from a year earlier.

Even though Mercedes-Benz brand is still the one with the most "quality control" problems among the three brands, it still has the highest sales this year, which undoubtedly shows that Mercedes-Benz brand effect is better than the other two in China. Audi brand has achieved a clear growth trend after the collective product replacement in the second half of last year, but it appears to be a little weak in 2020, with its Q5 model losing its position as the top seller frequently, while BMW's performance has not changed much.

As for second-tier luxury brands, the market share is still small, excluding the rise of independent brands and new power brands in recent years is less than 40%. Cadillac, which has been the second-tier luxury brand for many years in a row, has lagged far behind Lexus in sales since the beginning of this year, and has been surpassed by Cadillac for many months in a row, or it may be difficult to defend the second-tier brand title this year, with an increase of 36.7% in July compared with the same period last year, slightly higher than Lexus.

Or this is because the current Cadillac discount has not yet reached the ideal range of consumers, with the expansion of the later discount, will further support Cadillac to achieve higher sales.

Volvo, which has always been second only to Cadillac or Lexus, has also experienced some changes this year, overtaking by its own brand Red Flag in July, with sales of only 14600 vehicles. It has to be said that the red flag of independent high-end luxury brands has been significantly promoted since last year, frequently surpassing many luxury brands, and has now jumped to the second-tier luxury "top three". At the same time, sales of the S90, one of Volvo's best-selling models, have fallen frequently due to product backwardness, which is one of the main reasons why Volvo's sales growth is not obvious. However, Volvo has launched a new mid-term revamped S90 a few days ago.

Tesla and NIO, as new power brands, are also luxury high-end brands, both achieving a growth rate of more than 300-500%. They are undoubtedly the most eye-catching car companies in the luxury market. However, under the influence of the market, the performance of new energy vehicles lags far behind that of the fuel market, so that sales and market share are still in a small number, but with the popularity of the new energy market, sales of both may lead to growth.

Compared with many luxury brands that have achieved year-on-year growth, Jaguar Land Rover and Infiniti and Lincoln, which were originally in the second-tier luxury brands, seem to have been squeezed out to the third-tier position. In July, only Lincoln benefited from the launch of a number of domestic models, helping to achieve a significant increase in sales, up nearly 50% year-on-year to 5646 vehicles, but the market share of less than 2% is very small.

Jaguar Land Rover and Infiniti showed significant declines, with Infiniti the biggest decline, down 41.5 per cent from a year earlier, accounting for less than 1 per cent of sales of less than 3000. Jaguar Land Rover fell 17.9% from a year earlier, having been named by the China Automobile Association as the highest inventory brand of the month, a sign that Jaguar Land Rover is still in a difficult time.

As for the decline of the Porsche brand, the global market supply may be reduced as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic. After all, as a purely imported model, Porsche will take a long time from booking to driving.

Throughout the performance of luxury brands in July is still strong, except for a few luxury brands on the edge of the market is still in the flagging trend, other brands have achieved significant growth, which also shows that the upgrading of domestic consumption is obvious. However, with the rise of new power brands and independent brands, it has put obvious pressure on some second-tier luxury brands. At the same time, the differentiation of the luxury brand market is becoming more and more obvious.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat