AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)09/08 Report--

With the release of the passenger car sales report in August, the top 10 ranking of automakers has also been officially confirmed. Judging from the final list, the car companies in the top 10 remain unchanged, only slightly adjusted, while North and South Volkswagen and SAIC GM are still in the top three, Geely Changan two independent car companies continue to squeeze into the top 10, and the rest are occupied by five Japanese car companies.

According to the CAC report, retail sales in the passenger car market reached 1.703 million in August, an increase of 8.9% over August last year, the strongest positive growth since May 2018, reflecting the rapid recovery of the industry. As a result, a number of car companies also achieved positive growth in August.

It is worth noting that under the strong market performance, only SAIC Volkswagen and Dongfeng Nissan saw a decline in sales in the top 10. It should be noted that, in the narrow sense, the retail sales of passenger cars are market retail data, which can better reflect the market situation compared with the wholesale sales of manufacturers.

Volkswagen Group still maintains a strong position in China. Among them, FAW-Volkswagen sold 194000 vehicles in August, up 16.9% from a year earlier, and remained at the top of the other joint ventures. FAW-Volkswagen has three major brands, namely, Volkswagen brand, Audi brand and Jetta brand, covering the mainstream, luxury and low-end markets, the product line is relatively complete, so FAW-Volkswagen has a certain advantage in total sales.

On the other hand, SAIC-Volkswagen is holding back. Even if it still ranks second among all car companies, SAIC-Volkswagen cannot keep pace with the overall market, and its dismal market performance has led to a decline in sales for eight consecutive months, resulting in a growing gap with FAW-Volkswagen. Data show that SAIC-Volkswagen retail sales of 144000 vehicles in August, down 10.7% from a year earlier, is also the biggest decline among the top 10 car companies.

Previous analysis has pointed out that SAIC-Volkswagen has encountered sales difficulties, which is related to the impact of Passat collision on brand reputation and corporate reputation, SAIC Skoda's continued downturn and marginalization, as well as enterprise marketing promotion, product strategy and other aspects. SAIC Volkswagen, which is out of touch with the market, will need a longer period of adjustment to return to its former state.

SAIC GM remained in third place, with wholesale sales falling slightly in August, but terminal retail sales rose to 131000 vehicles, up 20.5 per cent from a year earlier. SAIC GM, which owns Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac brands, also covers the middle and low end of the joint venture and the luxury car market. Even if the overall sales are at the top, SAIC GM is also an "untenable" company.

In recent years, SAIC has gained market share through the market strategy of "price for quantity". Now SAIC GM has encountered the problem of brand internal friction and a serious decline in premium, and there has also been a deviation in product strategy. the large-scale application of three-cylinder engine has further aggravated the seriousness of the problem. At present, SAIC GM has accelerated the progress of product launch and made compromises to the market on product strategy, including a return to the four-cylinder engine version of mainstream car products.

In terms of independent car companies, Geely Automobile and Changan Automobile ranked among the best, winning the fourth and sixth positions in August, respectively. Among them, Geely retailed 107000 vehicles in August, an increase of 9.3% over the same period last year, mainly due to the recovery of Geely brand sales and the rise of Lecker brand sales, which reached 17000 in August.

The retail sales of Changan Automobile in August were 83000, up 62.7 per cent from a year earlier. Official figures show that Changan Automobile sold more than 10,000 models in August, of which 22456 were sold by CS75, 17776 by Changan Yizhi and 10, 000 by UNI-T.

In addition, Great Wall fell out of the top 10 for three months in a row, and its narrow passenger car (sedan + SUV+MPV) sales continued to be weak, excluding hot pickup sales and overseas sales data.

The remaining five seats are all occupied by Japanese joint venture car companies. Dongfeng Nissan retail sales fell 2.9% to 105000 vehicles in August, continuing the tepid pace. According to Dongfeng Nissan, Xuanyi sold 46688 units in August, up 43 per cent from a year earlier and accounting for 44.5 per cent of Dongfeng's daily production and sales.

Dongfeng Honda, Guangzhou Auto Honda, FAW Toyota and Guangzhou Automobile Toyota all sold more than 70,000 vehicles in August, up 19.8%, 19.7%, 41.1% and 19.1% respectively from a year earlier. Thanks to the good market feedback of new products, as well as the close relationship between brand marketing, technology investment and product strategy, the sales volume of Japanese car companies has recovered rapidly and ushered in a substantial growth.

According to the report of the China Automobile Association, the market share of Japanese brands has reached 24.1% this year, a further narrowing of the gap compared with the 25.1% share of German brands. It objectively reflects that the performance of Japanese brands in China is better than that of German brands in 2020.

Taken together, driven by the rapid growth of head car companies' sales, China's car market has entered the right track of monthly growth, but the cumulative sales volume in the first eight months still showed a double-digit decline of 15.2%, which means that the living environment of vulnerable car companies will be more difficult. The car market in the second half of the year has entered normal, car companies are still facing the pressure of annual target completion rate, and many car companies are also moving towards planning, but at present, the primary goal of car companies, such as SAIC-Volkswagen, is to stop the decline in sales.

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