AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/30 Report--

In the past year, affected by many factors such as Xinguan epidemic situation, shortage of parts, rising price of raw materials, geopolitics, etc., the domestic automobile market faces great challenges. However, thanks to the introduction of a series of policies encouraging automobile consumption from the central government to the local government, such as the purchase tax halving policy and local subsidies, the automobile industry has recovered rapidly after a short period of twists and turns.

According to the data of the Passenger Association, from January to July 2022, the cumulative output of narrow passenger cars in China was 12.386 million, with a year-on-year growth of 11.8%, and the cumulative sales volume was 11.079 million, down 3.5% year-on-year. Compared with the previous June, domestic passenger car output has been reversed by July, and the decline in sales volume has further narrowed. At the same time, the performance of new energy vehicles is satisfactory. From January to July 2022, the cumulative output is 3.094 million vehicles, with a year-on-year growth of 126.2% and the cumulative sales volume is 2.733 million vehicles, with a year-on-year growth of 121.5%.

On August 26, the 25th Chengdu International Automobile Exhibition (hereinafter referred to as "Chengdu Auto Show") opened in Western China International Expo City. Chengdu Auto Show also became the first Class A auto show to be held as scheduled in 2022 due to the postponement of the Beijing Auto Show, which was originally planned to be held in April due to the epidemic.

As the first A-class auto show in 2022, a number of car companies have chosen to release heavy models at the show. At the 2022 Chengdu Auto Show, the mid-term modified BMW 3 Series was officially launched at a price of 2939 - 409,900 yuan; the new generation XR-V debuted at the auto show, with a new car price of 1329 - 152,900 yuan; Beijing Hyundai made its mid-term appearance and announced its brand-new name "The Fourth Generation Shengda Traveler"; Yueda Kia launched the fifth generation Sportage Lion Platinum Extension at the auto show, and the new car basically continued the overseas version design. SAIC GM Buick debuts a brand-new model, Envista, and announces that the pre-sale price of the new car starts at 150,000 yuan; GAC Mitsubishi's brand-new generation of Outlander officially debuts, and opens blind ordering...

In addition to joint venture brands, independent brands have also brought a lot of new cars. At the 2022 Chengdu Auto Show, BYD officially debuted frigate 07 and announced a pre-sale price range of 220,000 - 280,000 yuan; a new generation of Chuanqi M8 officially debuted, with fuel, HEV (hybrid electric vehicle) and PHEV available for the new car.(Plug-in hybrid vehicle) hybrid model, expected to be launched in the fourth quarter; Xiaopeng Automobile debuted Xiaopeng G9 at the auto show for the first time. The new car is positioned as a medium and large SUV, which will be launched in September and delivered in the fourth quarter; In addition, Great Wall tanks appeared in tank 300 HEV and tank 500 PHEV models, Great Wall Wei brand debut dream model, Great Wall Haval announced brand-new model Haval H-Dog...

Joint venture brands and independent brands appeared at the auto show and listed many brand-new models, but from the feedback on the spot, the flow of independent brands is much higher than that of joint venture brands. It is understood that BYD, Volvo, BMW, Cadillac are located in Hall 3, among which BMW as a traditional first-line luxury brand, its booth area is the largest, and the billboard outside the exhibition hall is also the largest, to a certain extent, BMW for marketing or relatively valued. However, in the whole Hall 3, BYD is the most popular, in sharp contrast to BMW, Cadillac and Volvo. Its latest frigate 07 is surrounded, and the appearance of Seals, Destroyer 05 and other models also gets a lot of traffic for BYD booth.

At the auto show site, Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO Automobile, announced the updated parameters of NIO ET5 and said: "In the past year, the average monthly sales volume of BMW 3 Series is more than 12000 vehicles. With the delivery of ET5, the sales volume of ET5 will exceed 3 Series within one year." It is understood that ET5 is the lowest selling price model of NIO at present. The price before subsidy is 328,000 yuan and 386,000 yuan respectively. The launch of new car is conducive to further increase sales scale and seize more market share. At present, although it is not clear whether ET5 can surpass BMW 3 Series, but from the auto show site, as a new force brand NIO booth is also crowded, the most entry-level model NIO ET5 is also surrounded. From the market level, as one of BMW's troika in the Chinese market, BMW 3 Series ushered in a mid-term model change at the auto show, and the average monthly sales volume in the future can still reach more than ten thousand vehicles. However, as a new energy model and a pure electric vehicle model, NIO ET5 may not rule out the possibility of overtaking BMW 3 Series.

In addition to the dispute between joint venture brands and independent brands, the dispute between fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles is also vividly reflected in the auto show. In contrast, the popularity of traditional fuel automobile brand booths is obviously insufficient. For example, Skoda, Kia, Dongfeng Peugeot, Chevrolet and other brands have a general sense of presence at the auto show due to lack of new energy vehicles. Compared with the brands dedicated to the development of new energy vehicles such as Wenjie, NIO, Ideal, Xiaopeng, BYD and Avita, they are basically the bright roles of each exhibition hall.

According to the data of the Association, the market share of independent brands from January to July 2022 was 45.6%, a new high in recent years, while the market share of Japanese brands dropped to 21.2% and that of German brands dropped to 21.6%, a new low in recent years. The competition between independent brands and joint venture brands is becoming more and more intense, facing the reshaping of market competition pattern. Some viewers said on Weibo,"I don't know if I don't go to see it. I just came back from the Chengdu Auto Show. There was a circle of people outside ET5. I couldn't squeeze in at all. There was no one watching BMW 3 Series. The times have become too fast."

It is not difficult to see from Chengdu Auto Show that independent brands have become the mainstream of this auto show, mainly benefiting from the development strategy of independent development of pure electric brands + transformation from traditional fuel brands to hybrid, and the transformation from fuel vehicles to hybrid is relatively small, which is another track for independent brands to surpass joint venture brands outside pure electric field. On the contrary, due to the development of joint venture brands in the fuel vehicle market for many years, the determination to transform is not firm and thorough, and it is obviously difficult for most models to achieve ideal results by changing oil into electricity to realize new energy transformation. In the future, with the accelerated upward layout of independent brands, the competition in the future new energy market will be more intense, and the survival of the fittest will be more obvious.

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