AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/11 Report--

According to the latest data of the Passenger Association, the retail sales volume of narrow passenger car market in China in April 2023 was 1.631 million vehicles, with a year-on-year growth of 55.6% and a month-on-month growth of 2.5%, which is one of the only two positive month-on-month growth since 2010. According to the Association, with the gradual disappearance of the price war in the automobile market, the stable market mentality, the resumption of rational consumption by consumers, the resumption of the Shanghai Auto Show in April and the growth of demand for travel vehicles during the May Day holiday drove the recovery of car purchase consumption in April to strengthen, so the sales volume in April increased year-on-year, but affected by the Spring Festival this year and the impact of the price war in March, the cumulative sales volume from January to April this year was only 5.896 million vehicles, down 1.3% year-on-year.

According to the sales volume of the top ten automobile enterprises in the list, the overall domestic automobile market showed growth in April. The top ten automobile enterprises in the list were BYD Automobile, FAW Volkswagen, Chang 'an Automobile, SAIC Volkswagen, Geely Automobile, SAIC GM, GAC Toyota, FAW Toyota, GAC Honda and Dongfeng Nissan respectively. Among them, SAIC Volkswagen was the automobile enterprise with the highest increase in the list, followed by FAW Toyota. The difference between the two was only 0.1%, and Dongfeng Nissan was the automobile enterprise with the highest decrease. It was 0.9%, and it was also the only car company on the list that experienced a year-on-year decline.

According to the data, the sales volume of Dongfeng Nissan in April 2023 was 57527 vehicles, down 0.9% year-on-year. In the first four months of this year, Dongfeng Nissan is still the automobile enterprise with the highest decline in the list. The accumulated sales volume in the first four months was 209280 vehicles, down 30.3% year-on-year, and the market share was 3.5%. The official website shows that Dongfeng Nissan is currently selling models including Xuanyi, Teana, Qijun, Xiaoke, Blue Bird, Tuda, Jinke, Loulan and other models, but the best-selling models only Xuanyi, Teana, Xiaoke three models, with the intensification of market competition, these three models in the terminal market performance is also deteriorating.

According to the retail data of the association, the sales volume of Xuanyi in April was 26975; the number of Xiaoke was 7669; the sales volume of Tianzhu was 6740; the sales volume of Loulan was 3357; the sales volume of other models was very average, such as 423 sales volume of Jinke and 173 sales volume of Blue Bird. Enlarged to the first four months, the cumulative sales volume of Xuanyi was 99754 vehicles, accounting for 46.67% of the total sales volume, but fell 26% year-on-year.

In the camp of Japanese brand joint venture automobile enterprises, in sharp contrast to Dongfeng Nissan, FAW Toyota, GAC Toyota and GAC Honda increased to different degrees year-on-year and month-on-month in April, among which FAW Toyota sold 71383 vehicles, with a year-on-year growth of 91.6% and a month-on-month growth of 14.5%; GAC Toyota sold 77006 vehicles, with a year-on-year growth of 20.2% and a month-on-month growth of 26.2%; GAC Honda had 60498 vehicles, with a year-on-year growth of 40.2% and a month-on-month growth of 44.7%. As for Dongfeng Honda, its performance is even less satisfactory, falling out of the top 10 list in April. Dongfeng Honda terminal sales were 34381 units, down 34.2 percent year-on-year and 14.5 percent month-on-month, according to official data.

BYD remains the best-performing car company on the list, with BYD sales topping the list in April and the first four months. BYD sold 193902 vehicles in April, up 85.1% year-on-year, making it the only manufacturer with a market share of more than 10%. In terms of vehicle model breakdown, Qin sold 42647 vehicles in April, ranking first in the car list; Song sold 33007 vehicles, ranking first in the SUV list; in addition, Dolphin sold 29961 vehicles, Han sold 14714 vehicles, Yuan PLUS sold 28931 vehicles and Tang sold 12246 vehicles. In the first four months of this year, BYD's cumulative sales volume was 702608 vehicles, up 79.2% year-on-year. According to the annual sales target of 3 million vehicles, BYD has achieved 23.42% of its annual target.

In addition to BYD, Changan Automobile and Geely Automobile both entered the top five on the list, with different degrees of increase year-on-year. Among them, Changan Automobile increased by 85.7% year-on-year to 100637 vehicles, and Geely Automobile increased by 65.9% year-on-year to 90700 vehicles. On May 9, Geely Holdings and Chang 'an Automobile announced the signing of a strategic cooperation framework agreement. The two sides carried out strategic cooperation around new energy, intelligence, new energy power, overseas expansion and other industrial ecology. The cooperation scope almost covered the main fields related to the transformation of automobile industry. Both parties hoped to promote the Chinese brand upward. Industry insiders believe that Changan Automobile and Geely Automobile, as two highly competitive automobile enterprises in their own brand passenger cars, will choose "hand-in-hand marriage" because both automobile enterprises are facing the common goals and challenges of electric and intelligent transformation. After cooperation between the two sides, it will have a certain impact on the whole domestic new energy market, and may even change the competition pattern of independent brand heads.

According to the data, the retail sales volume of domestic passenger cars of self-owned brands in April was 790,000, with a year-on-year growth of 63%, a month-on-month growth of 1.5%, a market share of 48.2%, and a year-on-year growth of 1.7%. The Association said that the sales growth of self-owned brands was mainly due to the continuation of the rapid growth momentum in the new energy market and export market.

Joint venture brands also have an obvious warming trend. In April, the retail sales volume of mainstream joint venture brands was 610,000 vehicles, up 35% year-on-year and 12% month-on-month. Subdivided into each brand country to analyze, German brand retail share is 21.6%, a year-on-year growth of 2.3%; American brand is 8.4%, a year-on-year growth of 1.9%; Japanese brand is 18.7%, but it drops 5.7% year-on-year, which is the only brand among the three major national car series with year-on-year decline. According to "Automobile Industry Concern," the reason for the year-on-year decline may be the slow progress of electrification of Japanese brand and the impact of independent brand. However, Japanese car companies, including Honda and Toyota, are accelerating the process of layout electrification.

On May 10, Toyota officially announced that it would invest an additional 1 trillion yen ($7.4 billion) in electric vehicles by the end of 2030, bringing Toyota's planned total spending in the field to about $37 billion; At the recent Shanghai Auto Show, Honda China announced that it would fully enter the electric era. After 2027, Honda will launch all models in China as hybrid and pure electric vehicles, and will no longer launch new pure fuel models. By 2035, Honda China will achieve 100% of pure electric vehicle sales. Earlier, Honda China announced that it would sell only pure electric and hybrid models in China from 2030 and would no longer launch new fuel vehicles. According to the plan, GAC Honda and Dongfeng Honda will launch e:NP2 and e:NS2 new vehicles respectively at the beginning of 2024. Nissan also revealed that it will accelerate its electric drive strategy in China, planning to launch seven electric drive models by 2026 and 80% of its product line by 2030. As for whether the accelerated layout of Japanese automobile enterprises can regain part of the market share in the domestic market, it still needs more time and market verification.

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