Auto on September 20 (Reporter Wang Fang) The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers recently released auto sales data for August, which showed that the cumulative sales of passenger cars in August was 1.7899 million, a year-on-year decrease of 4.55%, and the cumulative sales from January to August was 18.0961 million, a year-on-year increase of 3.53%.
In terms of the sales ranking of the top ten automobile enterprises, FAW-VW, SAIC-GM and SAIC-VW respectively ranked the top three, and the independent brand Geely Automobile firmly ranked the fourth. Chang'an Automobile, which ranked ninth last month, declined again and has been pushed out of the top ten.
According to the official production and sales report of Chang'an Automobile in August, a total of 134222 new cars were sold by Chang'an Automobile, down 34.6% year on year and up 4.3% month on month. Meanwhile, the cumulative sales volume from January to August was 1470332, down 18.1% year on year.
Chang'an Automobile experienced two sales slumps this year
After Chang'an auto sales plummeted in April this year, there was a sharp month on month decline in July. So why does Chang'an Automobile, which has always been among the leading independent brands, have such a big fluctuation this year?
In fact, Chang'an Auto has started to decline in the past two years. According to the 2017 annual report of Chang'an Auto, its annual sales volume was 2872456, down 6.23% compared with the same period of the previous year. After entering this year, the monthly sales volume has declined to varying degrees compared with the same period last year. In July 2018, the sales of the most popular SUV models CS75, CS55 and CS35 under Chang'an Auto failed to exceed 10000.
In the past August, the sales volume of Chang'an CS35 plummeted. The former sales volume of this model only sold 3240 vehicles in August, down 62.80% month on month compared with the sales volume of 8709 vehicles in July. As can be seen from the table above, CS95 sales this month are even zero. In addition, although the sales of CS55, CS75 and CS15 have increased month on month, the year-on-year sales are still in a downward trend. Among all models, only CS55 sold more than 10000 cars in August, barely maintaining its sales volume.
It is worth noting that the new CS55 and CS55 Blue Motion models have been officially launched on the 16th of this month. It is reported that the new models have been upgraded in appearance, interior and configuration. The new CS55 and CS55 Blue Motion models are models under Chang'an Auto's "Beidou Tianshu" intelligent strategy and "Shangri La Plan" respectively.
Due to poor performance, Chang'an Automobile is also in turmoil. In May this year, the Announcement on the Change of the Company's Senior Management released by Changan Automobile showed that Mr. Gong Bing, the vice president of Changan Automobile, was no longer a vice president due to job changes and did not work in the company, and vice presidents Huang Zhongqiang and Luo Minggang were also no longer vice presidents due to job changes.
In the 2018 Fortune China 500 list released recently, SAIC Group ranked first in the automotive field. Geely Automobile performed well, rising to 85 from 123 last year, while Chang'an Automobile declined more, from 83 to 95, falling 12 places.
Chang'an Automobile Faces a Bottleneck Period of Internal and External Troubles
In the face of fierce competition in the SUV market, Chang'an Automobile is also facing a crisis. Taking CS35, whose sales volume plummeted this month, as an example, compared with its competitor Baojun 510, the price of Baojun 510 has lost out. The price range of Baojun 510 is 548-76800 yuan, while that of Chang'an CS35 is 689-92900 yuan. As the first SUV model of Chang'an Automobile, the CS35 has also had a good sales volume. However, with the upgrading of consumption, the Chang'an CS35, which has not been upgraded for a long time, gradually lags behind the Baojun 510, which has a stronger sense of design and richer configurations, and is expected to be surpassed.
2018 can be said to be the first year of cars recognized by independent brands. According to the data of the China Automobile Association, the sales of SUVs in June fell by 0.5% year on year, and in July by 8.2% year on year. After maintaining rapid growth in recent years, SUV sales have declined for two consecutive months.
In addition to external factors, the aging of Chang'an Automobile is also serious. According to the analysis of the insiders, "the main models of Chang'an Automobile have entered the product aging period, and if we do not speed up the product upgrading, the sales will decline sooner or later." For example, CS75 can be said to have not been upgraded for many years, and it was only updated in the first half of this year. Compared with other independent brands, such as Haval H6 and Trumpchi GS4 are actively upgrading their models.
On the other hand, self owned brands have always given people the impression of low-end low-cost cars. However, in recent years, Great Wall, Geely and other auto brands are moving to the high-end market, and WEY, LinkedIn and others have been launched. Chang'an only launched its flagship SUV, Chang'an CS95, and its sales volume is even more impressive.
With the upgrading of consumption, the primary conditions for consumers to purchase cars are no longer price, brand quality and other requirements are gradually improving. Although Chang'an also used the official drop to recover the sales for a while, it lowered the brand image and could not completely solve the fundamental problem of market weakness.
In addition, the reporter learned from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China (AQSIQ) that in the past two years, Chang'an Automobile also had many recalls due to safety problems. Tang Haitao, an analyst with many years of experience in automobile testing, said: "The quality of Chang'an Automobile is actually medium. There are no major problems, but small problems continue."
From the perspective of internal factors, in terms of product layout, Chang'an Auto's models with a price of more than 100000 yuan account for a large proportion, which is difficult to support the market within the range of 200000 yuan. In addition, there are also many complaints about the CS series models of Chang'an Automobile. The reporter learned from Car Quality Network that only the CS35 model has frequent problems such as abnormal engine noise, shaking, and water leakage in the car.
Can the listing of CS35 PLUS save Chang'an
At the Chengdu Auto Show at the end of August, the new Chang'an CS35 PLUS has been unveiled. As a fully upgraded model of the current CS35, Ye Pei, the assistant president of Chang'an Auto, said that the CS35 PLUS is not just a simple product upgrade, but a comprehensive upgrade. However, in the fierce competition environment, it is unknown that Chang'an Automobile can rely on CS35 PLUS to make a comeback. However, "gimmick" is absolutely not enough in the Chinese automobile market. Only when the quality and service are recognized by consumers can it go further and steadily.
