From January to March 2024, the cumulative sales volume of imported vehicles will be 166000, down 7.25% year on year. The Circulation Association said that after years of continuous decline in China's automobile imports, destocking is still the main task in 2024. The Circulation Association said that in recent years, the customs declaration unit price of imported vehicles has been increasing year by year, but the average customs declaration price of imported vehicles in March was lower than the average customs declaration unit price in 2023 for the first time, indicating that the consumption upgrading trend of imported vehicles has changed in recent years; The proportion of 2.5-3.0L models with large displacement also dropped by 24.2 percentage points to 4.4%, and the high-end trend of the imported car market is weakening.

Recently, China Automobile Circulation Association released the data of imported cars in the first quarter. In terms of supply, from January to March 2024, China's automobile import volume will be 157000, down 4.1% year on year, and the import amount will be 63.27 billion yuan, down 15.9% year on year. The Circulation Association said that after years of continuous decline in China's automobile imports, destocking is still the main task in 2024. Data shows that in March, the inventory depth of imported garages rose to 5.4 months, a record high.

In terms of demand, the cumulative sales volume of imported vehicles from January to March 2024 is 166000, down 7.25% year on year. From the perspective of monthly trend, March was the first full month of sales after the Chinese Lunar New Year, the overall car market sales returned to normal, and the sales of imported cars rebounded to 55600.

In terms of price, the customs declaration unit price of imported vehicles has been increasing year by year in recent years. From 2015 to 2023, the customs declaration unit price has increased from 252100 yuan to 415700 yuan, and in 2024 (as of March), the customs declaration unit price has dropped to 403000 yuan. The Circulation Association said that the average customs declaration price of imported cars in March was lower than the average customs declaration price in 2023 for the first time, indicating that the consumption upgrading trend of imported cars has changed in recent years.

From the perspective of brand structure, in the first quarter of this year, the cumulative sales volume of ultra luxury cars was 1394, down 32.56% year on year; The cumulative sales volume of non luxury cars was 14857, down 15.83% year on year; The cumulative sales volume of luxury cars was 149750, down 5.97% year on year, the smallest decline. Among them, luxury cars are the main force in the sales of imported cars, accounting for 90.21% in January to March.

Specifically, Lexus sold 41326 vehicles, ranking first with a year-on-year growth of 38.5%; Mercedes Benz ranked second, with a cumulative sales of 34061 vehicles, but a year-on-year decrease of 20.4%; BMW ranked third with 22922 vehicles sold, down 15.4% year on year.

In the first quarter of this year, four brands achieved positive year-on-year sales growth, namely Lexus, Audi, Toyota and MINI. However, Porsche, which insisted on not lowering the guide price, saw its sales volume drop by 38.7% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, with a cumulative sales volume of 13593 vehicles, ranking fifth. In this regard, according to the analysis of the Circulation Association, the sales data of Porsche fell sharply, which indicates that the high-income groups in China are more rational in spending on luxury goods. However, from the perspective of supply, in the case of slowing domestic demand, auto companies may be shrinking their exports to the Chinese market to reduce sales pressure and protect brand value.

In terms of emission structure, the emission of imported passenger cars in the first quarter was concentrated in the 1.5-2.0L emission range, accounting for 53.0%, 13.2 percentage points higher than that in 2023, maintaining the largest emission range; The 2.0-2.5L emission range accounted for 30.6%, with an increase of 9.8 percentage points, making it the second largest emission range; The 3.0-4.0L range accounts for 6.2%, ranking third; The 2.5-3.0L displacement range accounted for 4.4%, down 24.2 percentage points. The high-end trend of the imported car market is weakening.

In terms of new energy import vehicles, the new energy import vehicles showed a seasonal weakening trend in the first quarter, with a cumulative sales of 5882 vehicles, down 41.1% year on year. Among them, the pure electric model dropped by 24.2%, and the plug-in hybrid model dropped by 53.8% year on year. The Circulation Association said that, as a comparison, the sales volume of domestic new energy vehicles in the first quarter was 2.09 million, with a year-on-year growth of about 32%. The market is still in an obvious upward channel, which to some extent reflects the strong rise of self owned brand new energy luxury vehicles, which has a strong substitution effect on imported new energy vehicles, and the purchase preference of end customers is gradually changing. (Chen Mengyu, reporter of China Economic Network, photo source: China Automobile Circulation Association)