AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/27 Report--

According to the data of the Association, the market demand for high-end models from January to March 2023 was good, but the import volume of automobiles was only 163,000 vehicles, down 30% year-on-year, among which the import volume of automobiles in March was 57,000 vehicles, down 28% year-on-year. Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the Association, pointed out that the core driving force for the growth of the import market is still the upgrading of passenger car consumption. Therefore, compared with ordinary fuel vehicles, the trend of luxury cars and imported cars is generally very good, but the electric transformation has changed the demand for fuel vehicles, and the demand for imported fuel vehicles has also decreased significantly. With the increasing complexity of international relations, it is still necessary to establish more import models in advance and maintain a reasonable scale of imported vehicles.

By country, Japanese imported cars plummeted in the first quarter of 2023, falling 65% year-on-year to 27404 vehicles, while American imported cars fell 32% year-on-year, Swedish imported cars fell 39% year-on-year, and German imported cars fell 6%. In contrast, imported cars in Slovakia performed better, up 22% year-on-year to 19414 in the first quarter.

According to brands, the top three brands in sales volume in the first quarter were Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Lexus respectively, among which Mercedes-Benz ranked first with 42724 vehicles, with a year-on-year growth of 25%, while BMW ranked second with 41248 vehicles, with a year-on-year growth of 40%. In contrast, although Lexus sales plummeted, the cumulative sales of imported cars in the first quarter were 30258, down 37% year-on-year, making it the only brand in the top three to decline. In addition, imported brands including Porsche, Land Rover, Toyota and Volvo also achieved substantial growth, while Lincoln, which has already achieved domestic production, fell 61% year-on-year.

From March sales to see, Only BMW, Lexus reached more than ten thousand vehicles, Among them the only decline brand is still Lexus, Year-on-year decline of 37%. According to comprehensive data, Lexus has performed relatively strongly among imported brands in recent years. In 2022, Lexus led BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other brands with sales volume of 219,200 vehicles, but 2022 was the first sales decline since Lexus entered China, after 15 consecutive years of year-on-year growth. After entering 2023, Lexus 'market performance is not optimistic. The market believes that the slow progress of electric transformation, the failure of intelligent model to keep up with the mainstream, the decline of cost performance and other reasons are the main factors affecting consumers to buy Lexus models. In addition to traditional luxury brands, new brands such as NIO and Ideal begin to seize the luxury brand market, and it is the second-tier luxury brands that bear the brunt.

In terms of specific models, Lexus ES sold the highest number of vehicles in the first quarter of 2023, with cumulative sales of 15655 vehicles, but down 39% year-on-year. Mercedes-Benz GLE followed closely, down 9% year-on-year to 12770 vehicles. In addition, models with more than 5000 sales include the Porsche Cayenne, Lexus NX, Mercedes S-Class, Toyota Elfa, Land Rover, Porsche Paramera and Porsche Macan. According to the comprehensive chart, most models still showed growth in the first quarter of 2023, except Lexus ES, Mercedes-Benz GLE, BMW MINI and Audi A5.

At present, epidemic prevention and control has been normalized. Due to epidemic prevention and control, the impact caused by blocked logistics and freight transportation is minimal, and the impact of parts supply is also improving. Therefore, the performance of China's imported automobile brands should be improved in 2023, but at the same time, the competition in the import market is particularly fierce. The mainstream imported brands are still mainly selling fuel vehicles, and when new energy vehicles become the tuyere, the development of imported brands in the domestic market will also be affected.

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