The price war continues, Auto sales But it failed to rise all the way. According to the data of the China Automobile Association, in April, China's automobile sales reached 2.359 million, up 9.3% year on year and 12.5% month on month.
Focus on automobile enterprises and show polarization. According to the statistics of Geshi Auto, about half of the auto companies outperformed the market, while the other half was hardly optimistic. Only a few could rise with the month on month ratio. In terms of overall size, growth and other aspects, BYD is still the most outstanding. After returning to the level of 300000+in March, BYD's sales continued to rise month on month in April, hitting a new high.
New forces usher in Xiaomi, and the ideal war situation is stuck
In April, with the start of delivery of Xiaomi Motors, new members of China's new power auto enterprises were added. The "Weixiaoli" who have no shortage of traffic, together with Xiaomi cars with "sky shattering traffic", have attracted more and more attention from the market.
Data shows that 7058 new cars were delivered by Xiaomi Automobile in April. It seems that this data is not very impressive, but for a brand new brand, the first model has achieved such results in the first month, which is commendable. Moreover, according to the data released by Xiaomi Auto, as of 24:00 on April 30, the number of locked orders of Xiaomi SU7 has reached 88063.
Photo source: Lei Jun's personal microblog
For this performance, the official of Xiaomi Automobile said that Xiaomi SU7 is actively expanding capacity Accelerate delivery to ensure that the target of 100000 vehicles will be delivered this year. At the recent Xiaomi Investor Conference, Lei Jun introduced the supply chain of Xiaomi SU7. He said that the vast majority of suppliers of Xiaomi SU7 are BBA (Mercedes Benz, BMW, Audi) suppliers. Due to the high cost of parts, this means that the gross profit margin will not be very high. It is estimated that the gross profit margin is about 5-10%. "The sales volume of SU7 is much larger than expected, so the specific figures need to be carefully calculated."
The ideal and the world of inquiry are still locked in battle. After three consecutive months of anti overtaking by the Interrogation, Ideals "defeated" Interrogation with a slight advantage of more than 700 vehicles, and won the championship of new forces in April. Specifically, 25787 new cars will be delivered in April, with a slight year-on-year increase of 0.4%. The cumulative delivery from January to April is 106187, with a year-on-year increase of more than 35%. It is reported that by April 30, 2024, the ideal cumulative delivery has reached 739551 vehicles.
More importantly, the ideal L6, which is expected by the ideal, was officially listed on April 18. On May 6, the Ideal was announced. During the first sale period from April 18 to May 5, the accumulated orders of Ideal L6 exceeded 41000 vehicles. In addition, in order to further stimulate the demand for ordering, its official announcement is that consumers who order the ideal L6 from May 6 to May 31 can enjoy a limited time ordering right worth 15000 yuan. With the launch of mass delivery of this model in May, the ideal sales volume is expected to further increase.
Image source: Ideal car
In April, Interworld delivered 25086 new cars, including 10896 new M7 cars and 13391 new M9 cars. It is worth noting that this time, Quest did not conduct a separate delivery statistics, but Hongmeng Zhixing made a consolidated statistics on all models of Quest, Zhijie and other brands. At the same time, this data also shows that Wisdom S7 delivered a total of 4546 new cars in April.
It is undeniable that the launch of the ideal L6 is gradually bringing back the ideal overall sales performance and helping it to regain the top sales position from the industry. But the ideal rival of L6 is not only Boundary M7 There are also Tesla Model Y, Landu Free, Linker 08 and other models. In addition, the new M5 of Interworld has also been listed on April 23, and it seems that it will compete with the ideal L6 face-to-face. It can be predicted that the war between the ideal and the world will be more intense.
The delivery volume of Weilai in April was 15620 vehicles, up more than 30% month on month and more than 1.3 times year-on-year. Although it still hasn't broken the magic spell of "Ten Thousand", it is a relatively good result that the monthly sales volume can be stabilized at more than ten thousand units under the condition that the car market is extremely involute.
And the arrival of the sub brand "Ledao" is expected to help it return to the level of 20000+. Li Bin, the founder, chairman and CEO of Weilai, said earlier that the launch of the new brand is a key brand for Weilai to achieve large-scale sales growth and amortize manufacturing costs, and also an important step to determine whether it can turn losses into profits as soon as possible and improve financial data.
According to the previous news, Ledao L60, the first model of Ledao cars, is positioned as a pure electric coupe, and will benchmark Tesla Model Y, with a cost reduction of about 10%. The single motor, refrigerator, color TV and big sofa will be assembled as required by users. Li Bin previously disclosed that "Ledao" will focus on the mainstream family segment market, and will continue to use the BaaS model, with a lower price than Weilai. At the same time, the battery capacity of the model is smaller, and the endurance is shorter than Weilai's. Gaishi Motor has learned that Weilai will officially launch the "Ledao" brand on May 15.
The delivery volume of Zero Run in April was 15005 vehicles, both rising on a month on month basis. Since last year, with the help of "pure electricity+extended range", zero run sales have gradually recovered. In 2024, Zero Run will continue to work hard on the extended race track, and the launch of C10 will further stabilize and promote the growth of sales. At this year's Beijing Auto Show, ZeroRun C16 also officially appeared, which will help ZeroRun hit the high-end market.
Nezha's performance was not as good as that of the same period last year. In April, 9017 new cars were delivered. Previously, Nezha said, "Tongxiang Factory is undergoing reconstruction and expansion projects yield It will have a great impact. It is expected that the capacity will be gradually increased from mid to late April, and the annual capacity will reach 200000 units. " In addition, Nezha L was launched on April 22 and will start mass delivery in May, or bring about sales improvement.
Xiaopeng delivered 9393 new cars in April. Since February, the sales performance has gradually rebounded. In fact, in February, Gesch Automotive Research Institute Analysts have said that Xiaopeng's monthly sales are expected to gradually improve as channels are adjusted and stabilized, production capacity keeps up, and price reduction and promotion are combined.
Old brands are still strong, and BYD and Chery are growing rapidly
The old brand is independent and depends on BYD.
Last year, BYD's rapid growth was well known in the industry. However, in January and February of this year, BYD's monthly sales dropped sharply, triggering the industry's "lack of stamina of BYD". However, once the "Glory Edition" was launched, BYD caught its peers by surprise.
According to the statistics of Geshi Motors, as of May 1, most of BYD's models had completed the switch of the glory version, and compared with the dismal results in January and February, its sales volume in March successfully returned to the level of 300000+, and the upward trend continued in April.
In April, BYD sold 313245 new energy vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 48.96%, and a slight increase of 3.57% month on month. For each brand, 297864, 11122, 2110 and 952 new cars were sold by BYD Dynasty/Ocean, Denza, Eopard and Yangwang respectively this month. From January to April, BYD's cumulative sales volume has reached 939508, with a year-on-year growth of more than 23%.
Previously, Lu Tian, general manager of the sales department of BYD Dynasty. com, said that BYD Group aims to maintain a growth of more than 20% on the basis of 3.02 million vehicles in 2023. In other words, BYD's annual sales target will be 3.624 million vehicles, excluding 939500 vehicles in the first four months of this year, and 335600 vehicles in the next eight months.
Judging from the current momentum, it is very promising to achieve such sales targets. However, the industry is more concerned about whether BYD will earn less money under the "glory version" strategy. Judging from BYD's first quarter financial report, people may be "over worried".
Data shows that in the first quarter of this year, BYD's operating revenue increased by about 4% year-on-year to 124.94 billion yuan, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies increased by about 11% year-on-year to 4.57 billion yuan. Although from the data point of view, compared with the revenue scale of about 180 billion yuan and the net profit of about 8.67 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of last year, the growth rate slowed down, but in the first quarter, BYD's gross margin reached 21.88%, still achieving a year-on-year growth of 4.02 percentage points.
Some insiders pointed out that BYD has gained more profit margin through its own production and sales of parts and large-scale advantages. At the same time, the declining battery cost has also brought more room for the decline of the vehicle price. It is revealed that the price of the lithium iron phosphate battery carried by the current glory version is lower than that of the champion version last year.
BYD is in the limelight, and Chery cannot hide its rising happiness. According to Chery Group, its overall growth rate this year is far higher than the industry level. In the first quarter, Chery Group ranked first in the industry with a growth rate of 60.3%. In April, the Passenger Association predicted that retail sales of passenger cars in the narrow sense would decline by 1.5% year on year (according to the latest data, the decline was 5.7%). Chery Group continued to rise with a positive growth rate of 43.7%.
Specifically, in April, Chery Group sold 182049 cars, up 43.7% year on year. Among them, 89377 vehicles were exported, up 18.3% year on year, and 32995 new energy vehicles were sold, up 165.2% year on year. From January to April, Chery Group sold 711653 cars, up 55.7% year on year.
Image source: Chery
By brand, Chery sold 117726 cars in April and 482947 cars from January to April, up 57.5% year on year; The sales volume of Xingtu brand was 8235 in April and 31728 in January April, up 28% year on year; Jetway sold 37248 cars in April and 144724 cars from January to April, up 104% year on year; The first product of iCAR brand, iCAR 03, sold 7524 vehicles in this month, with a cumulative sales of 13011 vehicles.
Geely is also good. In April, the sales volume of passenger cars was 153267, up 39% year on year and about 2% month on month. Among them, 51428 new energy sales (including Geely, Linker and Krypton) increased by about 75% year on year and about 15% month on month. From January to April, the cumulative sales volume of the Group exceeded 620000, with a year-on-year growth of about 47%; The cumulative sales volume of new energy is nearly 200000, up 120% year on year.
Chang'an's own brand grew steadily, and its sales volume reached 172623 in April, which was better than the same period last year despite a 20% decline in month on month. Specifically, the main sales force is CS family, Yidong series, Qiyuan and Kaicheng, of which Kaicheng mainly focuses on the pickup market.
Relatively speaking, the performance of Great Wall was flat. The sales volume in April was 94796, with a month on month decline and a slight year-on-year increase. In the first four months of this year, the cumulative sales volume of Great Wall Motors exceeded 370000, with a year-on-year growth of more than 18%. However, the overseas sales volume of Great Wall hit a record high. In April, the overseas sales volume reached 36141, a year-on-year increase of 65.68%. From January to April, the overseas sales volume reached 128919, a year-on-year increase of 74.71%.
In addition, it is worth noting that, in the "second generation", the sales of Ai'an declined due to the increase of online car hailing labels, competitive products and the intensification of price war. Landu and Zhiji have maintained the growth trend, but the volume is still small, and polar krypton is relatively good. In April, 16089 vehicles were delivered, a year-on-year surge of 99%, a month on month increase of 24%, and a new record high. Among a number of traditional new energy brands, Krypton has a prominent performance in the high-end new energy market, with monthly sales of more than 10000 vehicles and a steady growth trend. On May 10, Krypton successfully landed on the New York Stock Exchange, reportedly breaking the record of the fastest listing of new energy vehicle enterprises in the history.
The joint venture performance is different, SAIC GM Wuling is still the highest
According to the data of the China Automobile Association, in April, the market share of Chinese brand passenger vehicles among all brands of passenger vehicles hit a new high of 63.5%, 8.4 percentage points higher than that of the same period last year, and 4.2 percentage points higher than that of March.
This means that the overall share of foreign brands has declined again. The data shows that in this month, the sales of five major foreign brands declined to varying degrees compared with the previous month; Compared with the same period of last year, the sales volume of Korean brands showed a double-digit growth, while the sales volume of other four major brands declined to varying degrees.
According to the statistics of Geshi Motors this time, joint venture brands have almost generally declined month on month, of which the two joint venture brands under GAC are the most serious. The sales of GAC Honda in April were 24673 units, with a month on month decline of more than 50%. The sales of GAC Toyota in this month were 48786 units, with a month on month decline of nearly 25%, and both the cumulative sales in a single month or the first four months were lower than the same period last year.
In this regard, Feng Xingya, General Manager of GAC Group, said, "At present, almost all joint venture brands are confronted with severe challenges in the new four modernizations wave, and on the whole, they are under certain pressure."
It can be seen that the sales volume of SAIC GM in April also declined on a month on month basis. In the first four months, the sales volume also declined by nearly 40% on a year on year basis, which is hard to be optimistic. The sales of Dongfeng Nissan, Dongfeng Honda, Chang'an Ford and Chang'an Mazda in this month are also lower than those in the previous month, but the difference is that the cumulative sales of these four brands have outperformed the same period last year, whether in a single month or in the previous April.
The performance of SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC GM Wuling is still relatively outstanding. On the one hand, their size is relatively larger, and on the other hand, both of them maintain growth in both single month sales and cumulative sales.
Specifically, since 2024, SAIC Volkswagen has maintained a good state of recovery. In April, the sales volume of 92013 vehicles increased both month on month, and the cumulative sales volume in the first four months reached 340072 vehicles, with a year-on-year growth of 8.08%. With the recovery of new energy sales, the sales of SAIC GM Wuling continued to rebound this year. In April, the sales reached 123000 units, both rising month on month. In the first four months, the cumulative sales reached 347009 units, up 16.52% year on year.
Of course, sales volume is a very important indicator to measure enterprises, but it is not the only indicator. Recently, Toyota Motor announced that its operating profit in 2023 will exceed 5 trillion yen for the first time. Toyota, which is "dumb" in the Chinese market, again tops the global auto companies in terms of profits. Although there is an additional gain (685 billion yen) brought by the depreciation of the yen, it is somewhat heartfelt for many Chinese auto companies.
Image source: Toyota
What's more, according to the plan, Toyota will slow down its development, give back to dealers and suppliers, focus on investment in "growth" technology, and commit to achieving sustainable growth in the future. In terms of technology investment, Toyota plans to significantly increase its investment in "growth" technologies such as electrification, hydrogen, software defined cars and artificial intelligence by 42%.
Gesch also noticed that Toyota has increased its presence in China. According to a recent report by Caijing Auto, Toyota's joint venture in China will introduce plug-in hybrid plans in the next two to three years, and its technical route will probably not continue to use Toyota's original Hybrid model (oil electric hybrid system), but will instead use BYD's DM-i technology (super hybrid technology).
At the Beijing Auto Show, Toyota announced that it would open a strategic partnership with Tencent to carry out cooperation in AI and big data. Previously, the company also established a joint venture with GAC Toyota and Xiaoma Zhixing to promote the large-scale mass production of autonomous taxis.
To sum up, domestic and foreign auto companies actually have their own anxieties, and then have their own priorities. Many domestic auto companies need to solve how to achieve or even expand profits while accelerating the development of new energy vehicles, while Toyota or some other foreign auto companies need to speed up the process of smart power transformation while preparing to "earn less".
