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On September 9, the HKIFA released its latest monthly market report. Data show that retail sales in the domestic passenger car market in August 2024 were 1.905 million, down 1.0 per cent from a year earlier and an increase of 10.8 per cent month-on-month. Of this total, retail sales of conventional fuel vehicles were 870000, down 28 per cent from a year earlier, up 4 per cent from a month earlier, while retail sales of new energy vehicles were 1.027 million, up 43.2 per cent from a year earlier and 17.0 per cent from a month earlier. According to this calculation, the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles in August was 53.9%, which continued to hit an all-time high.

In August, the domestic retail market of independent brands sold 1.2 million vehicles, up 21% from the same period last year, 14% from the previous month, and the domestic share in the same month was 63%. The brand share of traditional car companies such as BYD, Chery, Geely and Changan Automobile has increased significantly. The retail share of mainstream joint venture brands was 480000, down 27% from the same period last year, up 7% from the previous month, with a domestic share of 25% in the same month, including 16.6% for German brands, 12.6% for Japanese brands and 5.7% for American brands. Luxury car retail sales of 220000 vehicles, down 21% from the same period last year, increased by 3% month-on-month, with a market share of 11.5% in the same month.

The Federation said that with the further development of the scrapping and renewal policy and the introduction of local trade-in policies, terminal prices also began to stabilize after the state called for anti-involution, the wait-and-see mood of consumer money was further alleviated, and the overall heat of the car market rebounded. At the same time, with the change of the energy structure of the new energy vehicle market, the overall seasonal trend of the car market and the seasonal trend of traditional fuel vehicles gradually diverged, and the heat of the new energy vehicle market rose in August, continuing the trend of continuous strength in the second half of the year.

According to the list of retail sales of domestic car companies released by the Federation of passengers, it is not difficult to see that the pressure of market competition is huge, polarization is very obvious, and BYD, Chery and ideal cars have all skyrocketed. Among them, BYD increased by 57.1% year-on-year, making it the biggest car company on the list. Chery Automobile increased by 55.5% year-on-year and Geely Motor increased by 7.7%. From the perspective of the joint venture camp, there has been a decline except SAIC GM Wuling, with the biggest decline in Guangzhou Auto Toyota, down 21.0% from the same period last year.

As the only fully electric brand, BYD car (including BYD / Teng Teng / equation Leopard / look up) retailed 380000 vehicles, an increase of 57.1% over the same period last year, making it the biggest increase on the list. Since the beginning of this year, BYD has repeatedly adjusted the price strategy of its models, and at the beginning of the year, with the slogan "electricity is lower than oil", BYD launched the "glory version" of some series of models one after another, pushing the price of A-class cars to less than 80,000 yuan. Just today, the 2025 BYD Han, equipped with the fifth generation DM hybrid technology, is officially on the market, with a price range of 16.58-235800 yuan.

Since BYD, Geely and Chery have sold 136000 and 110000 cars, respectively. Among them, Chery Automobile achieved a substantial growth of 55.5%, second only to BYD Motor. In the domestic market, Chery continues to consolidate and expand its market share, while in the international market, especially in terms of export sales, Chery has become a leader in its own brands with outstanding performance. Geely also performed well, with a year-on-year increase of 7.7%, which is still worse than that of BYD and Chery, but it is not easy to achieve growth in the current market. As a representative of traditional car companies, Geely's new energy transformation can be said to be beginning to achieve results, and overseas markets have also made progress. Once they adapt to the pace of transformation, more powerful forces may burst out.

Changan Automobile is the only autonomous car company to show a decline in the list, down 18.3 per cent from a year earlier to 98000 vehicles, ranking sixth in sales. According to KuaiBao, car sales in Changan, Hebei Province, increased by 8.65% year-on-year, Chongqing Changan and Hefei Changan both declined, especially Hefei Changan, which fell by 29.39%.

As for other independent manufacturers, such as Great Wall Motor, they fell out of the top 10. According to Great Wall car sales KuaiBao, Great Wall car sales in August were 94500, down 17.21% from the same period last year, and sales declined for four consecutive months compared with the same period last year. All its brands except tanks declined, especially Euler halved, and Wei brand sales plummeted.

Let's take a look at the joint venture brand, the overall performance is not optimistic, which is the main reason for the sharp decline in fuel vehicle sales.

Take North and South Volkswagen as an example, although FAW-Volkswagen (including Volkswagen / Audi / Jetta) ranked third with 128000 vehicles, it fell 17.7% from the same period last year, making it the largest joint venture manufacturer. As for SAIC Volkswagen (including Volkswagen / Audi / Skoda), sales ranked fifth, with 100000 vehicles, down 9.1% from a year earlier.

Japanese car companies are even more bleak. Guangzhou Auto Toyota and FAW Toyota are both in the top 10, but the differentiation is also very serious. Guangzhou Auto Toyota fell 21.0% year on year, making it the biggest drop in the list, while FAW Toyota fell 5.1% from the same period last year. Dongfeng Nissan, Guangzhou Automobile Honda and Dongfeng Honda all fell out of the top 10, which is already the norm. It has to be admitted that Japanese brands are declining in the domestic market. With the formation of technical barriers in the electrification and intelligence of independent brands, consumers begin to turn their attention to more economical and affordable domestic cars, and Japanese cars are becoming more and more difficult to be recognized by Chinese consumers. even if the car is sold at a lower price, it is also difficult to get the favor of consumers.

Judging from the latest list released by the Federation of passengers, the ranking of the major automobile companies has not changed much, but the gap between them is becoming more and more prominent. Independent brands continue to promote the motorization of new energy, thus eroding the market of joint venture brands, while joint venture brands are mainly fuel cars. Under this background, it is difficult to resist the offensive of independent brands. On the one hand, we need to stabilize the fuel vehicle market, on the other hand, we need to expand electric research and development. It will be difficult to achieve growth for a long time to come.

Since the beginning of the year, the automobile market is facing unprecedented fierce competition. At present, the new energy vehicle industry has shown a state of steady growth, and the enterprises with the layout of electric vehicles have the potential for growth, which makes the life of the traditional joint venture manufacturers more and more difficult, resulting in the embarrassing situation that oil cars are difficult to sell and trams are not popular. In particular, the collective decline of Japanese brands is a typical example. In the context of independent brands accelerating the layout of new energy, the market share of joint venture brands continues to decline, how many other brands can withstand the market pressure?

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