AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)02/13 Report--

Data show that in January 2023, sales in the domestic narrow passenger car market were 1.293 million, down 37.9% from the same period last year and 40.4% from the previous month. Among them, the sales of SUV in January was 623000, up 36.2% from the same period last year, down 39% from the previous month. Subdivided into specific SUV models, you can obviously feel the reshuffle in the car market, and the most prominent performance is Japanese models. In January, the sales of many main SUV models in Japan fell off the SUVtop15 sales list.

According to the SUVtop15 sales list in January 2023, 13 models sold more than 10,000 vehicles, of which BYD Song topped the list with 49700 outselling models. In terms of model brands, in the top 15 of the list, there are 10 domestic models, respectively from BYD, Changan, Great Wall Harvard and Geely; there are 4 joint venture models, three of which are from BBA, while German is only one model, and Japanese cars are wiped out.

In terms of breakdown, the top three models on the list are all independent brands, and the best performing model is still BYD Song, which rose 121.4% to 49700 in January from a year earlier, followed by Chang'an CS75, which fell 32.7% to 21600.

Harvard H6 ranked third on the list, halving in January from a year earlier, lagging behind BYD Song and Changan CS75, with sales falling 50 per cent to 16700 vehicles. As a "national magic car", Harvard H6 has always had a high market position in the field of domestic SUV models, and has been the champion of SUV sales in China for many years in a row. According to statistics, from 2011 to 2021, Harvard H6 became the top SUV seller in China for 11 consecutive years, of which in 2021, Harvard H6 topped the annual SUV list with 360100 vehicles. With the increase of the same class of models in the market, the choice of consumers is more diverse, and the position of Harvard H6 is gradually being replaced. According to Automotive Industry concern's 2022 SUV Top20 sales list, the top seller of Harvard H6 in 2022 has been replaced by Model Y and has fallen to No. 3 on the list. The loss of this SUV title also directly led to negative growth of the Harvard brand and Great Wall in 2022.

Among independent brands, in addition to the above-mentioned models, Yuan models increased by 617.1% year-on-year to 14300, compared with Tang model sales, which fell 3.4% to 8542, while Chang'an CS35 increased by 428.2% to 10500. Geely car colorful and Xingyue L also sold 10500 and 10200 models respectively, while Boyue L, which went on sale soon after its launch in 2022, also sold 13600 vehicles.

Let's take a look at the joint venture brands. Looking at the entire list, only four of the top 15 models come from joint ventures, three of which are from luxury brand BBA. Mercedes-Benz GLC ranked fifth on the list that month, reaching 14300 vehicles, a good performance. BMW X5 and BMW X3 also sold 10700 and 10600 respectively. Among other models, under the control of sharp price cuts in Tesla China, Model Y sold 14200 vehicles that month.

It should be noted that there is only one model in the German system on the list, while many of the main SUV products in Japan have fallen directly out of the top 15. Toyota's slightly better Fenglanda and Weilanda sold 7698 and 7649 vehicles respectively in January, compared with 7407 for RAV4, compared with 7006 for Honda's CR-V, 5783 for Haoying and 2614 for Guandao.

"Automotive Industry concern" believes that in addition to the reduction in the number of customers entering stores caused by the Spring Festival holiday, the more important factors are related to the current changes in the overall pattern of the domestic car market. In terms of national sales and market share in 2022, Chinese brands sold 9.1766 million vehicles in 2022, with a market share of 45%, German brands accounted for 4.6232 million vehicles, with a share of 22%, Japanese brands accounted for 4.3605 million vehicles, with a share of 21%, American brands accounted for 1.7481 million vehicles, with a share of 8%, and Korean brands accounted for 357 million vehicles, with a share of 2%. Among them, Japanese car companies sold 4.36 million vehicles in China in 2022, down 7.7 per cent from the same period last year, the second consecutive year of decline, and the market share fell to 21 per cent, down 1.2 per cent from the same period last year. In other words, Chinese brands are on the rise, while brands including German and Japanese brands are gradually diluting their market share.

As of February 11, Japanese car companies Toyota, Honda, Nissan China and Mazda have all reported sales results in China in January 2023, with all four car companies declining year-on-year due to festive factors such as the Spring Festival. Mazda China has the highest decline. Specifically, Toyota fell 23.5 per cent year-on-year to 113800 vehicles, Honda China fell 56.2 per cent to 64200 vehicles, Nissan China fell 64.4 per cent to 4000 vehicles, and Changan Mazda fell 79.8 per cent year-on-year to 4000 vehicles.

In the past, Japanese car companies once crushed their own brands, but now they are not what they used to be. Of course, the fall of Japanese car companies is actually only a microcosm of joint venture car companies, with the rapid development of electrification, follow-up independent brands or reshape the pattern of car enterprises. In the subdivided SUV field, at present, this field is still a part of high demand in the domestic auto market, but there are more and more car companies in this field. In addition, under the background of new energy vehicle dividend, at that time, independent brands and joint venture brands will launch more fierce competition.

After entering February, the automobile market has gradually begun to pick up. The China Automobile Circulation Association predicts that passenger car sales in the automobile market will rise to about 1.6 million units in February. As for whether Japanese car companies can pick up after the overall car market picks up, we might as well look forward to it.

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