AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)06/11 Report--

According to data released by the Federation of passengers on June 11, retail sales in the passenger car market in May 2024 were 1.71 million, down 1.9 per cent from a year earlier, up 11.4 per cent from a month earlier, and cumulative retail sales from January to May in 2024 were 8.073 million, up 5.7 per cent from a year earlier.

According to the ranking of retail sales, the top 10 car companies in May were BYD Automobile, FAW-Volkswagen, Geely Automobile, Changan Automobile, Chery Automobile, SAIC Volkswagen, Guangzhou Automobile Toyota, Dongfeng Nissan, brilliance BMW and Tesla China. From the overall list, of the 10 car companies on the list in May, only BYD Automobile, Geely Automobile, Chery Automobile and Tesla China achieved year-on-year growth, with the highest increase still being Chery Automobile. Other car companies have shown varying degrees of year-on-year decline, of which FAW-Volkswagen, which has the highest decline, fell 17.5% compared with the same period last year.

Specific to the top five car companies on the list, a total of four independent Chinese brands entered the top five in May, namely BYD Automobile, Geely Automobile, Changan Automobile and Chery Automobile. Among them, as the only brand to achieve full electrification, BYD continues to maintain the top sales of passenger cars in China. Sales in May were 268000, ahead of a group of independent joint venture brands, up 21.5% from a year earlier, but significantly lagging behind Chery and Geely.

Chery sold 89000 cars in May, up 59.3% from a year earlier, ranking fifth on the list. Geely ranked third, with sales of 124000 vehicles, up 31.6% from a year earlier. Changan, which ranked fourth, sold 96000 vehicles, down 12.7% from the same period last year. It is the only Chinese independent brand that has seen a year-on-year decline.

Among the joint venture brands, German brands FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC-Volkswagen ranked second and sixth respectively, but both showed double-digit declines. FAW-Volkswagen was once the largest automaker in China, winning the title of domestic passenger car for three years in a row, but now it is a different story.

In May, FAW-Volkswagen was the car company with the worst decline among the top 10 on the list, falling 17.5 per cent to 124000 vehicles from a year earlier. Not long ago, car blogger Sun Shaojun posted on Weibo that FAW-Volkswagen sent a push called "Breakthrough Action" to employees throughout the system. The content shows, "FAW-Volkswagen is in the last and only transition window, we have no way to go except to fight against it, we can only live with one heart and one mind." Although the content was finally proved to be untrue by FAW-Volkswagen, it still revealed the difficult situation that FAW-Volkswagen is currently facing. Since then, FAW-Volkswagen Foshan Branch also launched a personnel optimization adjustment.

In addition, SAIC-Volkswagen, another Volkswagen joint venture in China, is also having a hard time. SAIC-Volkswagen sales fell 11.9 per cent in May from a year earlier to 84000 vehicles, according to the data.

In the camp of Japanese car companies, Guangzhou Auto Toyota and Dongfeng produced and sold 70000 vehicles per day in May and 62000 vehicles per day, down 10.2 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively from a year earlier. FAW Toyota, Guangzhou Automobile Honda and Dongfeng Honda all missed the top 10.

Brilliance BMW squeezed into ninth place in May, with sales of 55000 vehicles, but down 3.2 per cent from a year earlier. Since entering 2024, brilliance BMW has been among the top 10 for many times. For comparison, brilliance BMW ranked 10th and 9th respectively in January and February, with sales of 69000 and 40000 respectively, fell out of the top 10 in March and re-entered the top 10 with 49000 in April, but down 7.9 per cent from a year earlier. , the topic of BMW price reduction rushed to Weibo hot search, market rumors that BMW i3, i5 pure electric models have substantial discounts, of which BMW i3 models 50% discount promotion, the price is close to "halve". Including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other 4S stores have reduced prices, after the discount is more than 170000 naked cars, the discount is quite strong, and BMW i5 also gives a price discount ranging from 60, 000 yuan. The industry believes that BMW's price reduction may be related to the pressure on BMW's overall sales in China.

In addition to the above-mentioned car companies, Tesla China re-entered the top 10 in May, with sales up 29.9% year-on-year to 55000 vehicles. At present, Tesla's models on sale in China include Model 3 and Model Y. among them, Model Y is Tesla's first domestic SUV model, and it is also an important source of Tesla's sales in China. Taking the retail sales from January to April this year as an example, Tesla's cumulative sales in China was 163841, of which 126722 were Model Y, accounting for 77.34% of the total sales. On June 9, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on the social platform that Tesla will not launch a modified Model Y model this year. Musk also said that Tesla continues to upgrade existing vehicles through OTA and other ways, and Tesla vehicles will improve significantly in many aspects every six months.

The above is the list of the top 10 domestic automakers in May. Overall, retail sales of both German and Japanese brands have declined, and the domestic market share is shrinking. Retail sales of mainstream joint venture brands were 490000 vehicles in May, down 21 per cent from a year earlier and up 8 per cent from a month earlier, according to the Federation. Among them, the retail share of German brands was 18.6%, down 2% from the same period last year; the retail share of Japanese brands was 14.8%, down 3.2% from the same period last year; and the retail share of American brands was 6.7%, down 1.4% from the same period last year. By contrast, the market share of Chinese independent brands is rising all the time.

At present, China has become the world's largest market for new energy vehicles, and has achieved steady growth. Retail sales of conventional fuel vehicles in May were 910000, down 23% from a year earlier and up 6% from a month earlier, while retail sales of new energy vehicles in the market were 804000 in May, up 38.5% from a year earlier and 18.7% from a month earlier, according to the Federation of passengers. In this regard, the Federation said: "the demand for fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles is different, can not be simply and comprehensively replaced, the continued downturn in the consumption of conventional fuel vehicles is an important factor to curb the overall recovery of the car market."

Generally speaking, independent brands, including BYD, make use of the new energy track to achieve corner overtaking and gradually erode the joint venture brand market, which has become a heavy pressure that joint venture car companies can not ignore. Especially since 2024, the overall inventory pressure of the automobile industry has increased, coupled with the inner volume of the "price war" leading to the decline of the terminal price of new cars, fuel vehicle manufacturers are under tremendous pressure, but also face the problem of new energy transformation.

The period from 2024 to 2025 will be a fierce survival knockout stage for Chinese automobile companies. as the domestic automobile market enters the second half, the competition between independent brands and joint venture brands, new energy vehicles and traditional fuel workshops will be more intense. "how to maintain competitiveness in the new energy vehicle market" is an urgent problem for joint venture automobile enterprises.

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