AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)06/07 Report--

On June 6, the China Automobile Circulation Association released a report entitled "Analysis of China's imported Automobile Market in April 2022". According to the report, Chinese customs imported 319000 cars from January to April in 2022, down 4.9% from the same period last year, of which 94000 were imported in April, down 5.8% from the same period last year.

Among the top 10 imported car brands, Lexus still ranks first, with Mercedes-Benz and BMW respectively ranking second or third, with Mercedes-Benz importing 53425 vehicles and BMW importing 38779 vehicles. In addition, Porsche, Audi and Land Rover imported more than 10,000 vehicles, including 23907 Porsche, 15584 Audi and 11928 Land Rover, while other brands including MINI, Toyota and Volvo all had less than 10,000. In terms of ups and downs, Audi and Subaru fell more than 40 per cent, while Lexus and BMW also fell by more than 30 per cent, while Toyota became the only brand to grow, up 7.7 per cent from a year earlier to 9034 vehicles.

Lexus firmly ranks the largest brand in the number of imported cars in the Chinese market. As a high-end brand of Toyota, Lexus has always maintained the status of imported cars for sale in the Chinese market and insisted on not setting up factories for production in China. This has also led to the generally high price of Lexus models of the same class, with a price increase on some model lists, but its imported car status has also attracted some consumers. Import data show that Lexus imported a total of 56606 vehicles from January to April 2022, down 32.27% from the same period last year. According to the insurance figures, the cumulative sales of Lexus from January to April in 2022 were 57927 vehicles, down 30.71% from the same period last year. The above data show that Lexus adopts a "low inventory" marketing approach.

First-tier luxury brands Mercedes-Benz and BMW ranked second and third, with Mercedes-Benz imports down 5.01 per cent year-on-year to 53425 vehicles and BMW imports down 33.53 per cent to 38779 vehicles. It is understood that Mercedes-Benz imported cars are mainly driven by GLE-class and S-class models, while BMW's main imported models include 7-Series, X5, X6 and so on. As for Audi, one of the three German brothers, its performance so far this year is relatively dismal. Not only the sales of domestic models are significantly lower than those of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, but also the year-on-year decline of imported models reached 42.12%. The popularity of imported cars such as A4, A7, A8 and Q7 in the domestic market is not as hot as that of BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

As an ultra-luxury brand, Porsche ranks fourth in the number of imported cars, with imports falling 21.18% year on year to 23907 vehicles from January to April 2022. China has become Porsche's largest single market in the world for many years in a row. According to the insurance figures, Porsche sold 24213 vehicles in China from January to April in 2022, down 20.96% from the same period last year.

Toyota is the only one of the top 10 import brands to achieve growth, importing a total of 9034 vehicles from January to April 2022, an increase of 7.70% over the same period last year. It is understood that the official imported cars of the Toyota brand are mainly Elfa and Wilfa models, while other models, including Sena and Cooluze, are mainly parallel imports. According to the China Automobile Circulation Association, Toyota-branded imported cars mainly come from parallel imports, which were narrowed by the policy in the same period last year, and the state stimulus policy issued this year proposes to encourage the development of parallel imported cars. With the gradual resumption of supply of parallel imported models, the share of emissions above 3.0L rebounded to 5.6 per cent, an increase of 1.7 per cent over 2021.

In terms of brand structure, sales of imported cars fell sharply as a whole, especially in April, affected by the epidemic in Jiangsu, Shanghai and Zhejiang. Ultra-luxury cars, luxury cars and non-luxury cars all fell by more than 40% in April compared with the same period last year, reflecting the overall impact of epidemic prevention on the car market, while non-luxury cars were most affected by the epidemic, down 52.24% from the same period last year.

However, although the number of imported cars has declined, the amount of imports has increased, with imports totaling 127.99 billion yuan from January to April 2022, an increase of 9.4 percent over the same period last year. In addition, the customs declaration price of imported cars has increased year by year, from 252100 yuan in 2015 to 401200 yuan in 2022, breaking the 400000 yuan mark for the first time. According to the association's analysis, with reference to historical data, the previously issued vehicle purchase tax reduction policy issued by the Ministry of Finance has limited direct stimulus to imported cars, but with the recovery of consumer confidence, the consumption trend will be transmitted to the field of high-end luxury cars, and the transmission effect of the policy is expected. Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Federation, said that with the gradual increase in the proportion of luxury car imports in recent years, the growth of imported cars mainly depends on the growth of luxury cars, reflecting the fact that the purchasing power of ultra-high-end consumers is actually increasing.

Due to the impact of epidemic prevention and control, spare parts supply, logistics and freight transportation, imported cars basically showed a decline in 2022, especially for brands such as Lexus, BMW and Audi. However, the market is also unified, although the overall decline, but the market position and ranking remain unchanged.

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