China Business News (Reporter Lei Kexin Wen/Tu) With the temperature of the price war set off in the car market in Hubei in March gradually receded, the domestic auto market situation tends to stabilize, consumers resume rational consumption, market demand also began to gradually release.

May 11, the reporter learned from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in April this year, China's automobile production and sales were completed 2.133 million units and 2.159 million units, down 17.5% and 11.9%, respectively, compared with the ring, an increase of 76.8% and 82.7%, respectively.

"In April, affected by the low base effect of the same period in 2022, the auto market production and sales achieved a significant year-on-year growth. Among them, the production and sales of new energy vehicles and auto exports continued to continue the good trend. Meanwhile, auto consumption is still in the process of slow recovery due to the irrational promotion wave since March that caused the wait-and-see phenomenon of some consumers holding their money for purchase." Chen Shihua, deputy secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said.

The new energy booth at Auto Shanghai 2023 was very crowded and filled with consumers who were interested in new energy products.

Passenger car production and sales increased significantly year-on-year

In April, China's passenger car production and sales completed 1.778 million and 1.181 million units, down 17.3% and 10.2%, respectively, year-on-year growth of 78.5% and 87.7%. Among them, Chinese brand passenger car sales reached 999,000 units, up 81.4% year-on-year, with a market share of 55.2%. Since January this year, the market share of Chinese brand passenger cars has been steady at over 50%.

In April, the top independent brands gained significant increment in the new energy market, with BYD (260.100, -3.65, -1.38%), Changan and Geely's new energy vehicle sales increasing by 98.31%, 111.77% and 111.6% respectively.

From January to April, sales of traditional energy passenger cars, Class A0 (compact cars) and Class C (medium and large cars) showed positive year-on-year growth, with cumulative sales of Class A vehicles reaching 2.695 million units, down 7.8% year-on-year; sales of Class A new energy passenger cars The cumulative sales of A-class new energy passenger cars reached 849,000 units, an increase of 69.1% year-on-year.

Chen Shihua said, many consumers will be torn between buying traditional fuel cars or new energy vehicles, although the variety of new energy vehicles, but from an objective point of view, new energy vehicles are still not as convenient as fuel cars, consumers will worry about the range and charging speed and other issues in the purchase.

From January to April, among traditional energy passenger cars, 80,000-100,000 yuan and over 300,000 yuan models showed positive year-on-year growth, with the largest increase in models over 500,000 yuan. Sales are now mainly concentrated in the 100,000-150,000 yuan price range, with cumulative sales reaching 1.658 million units. And new energy passenger cars 100,000-250,000 yuan, 300,000-500,000 yuan price range models showed positive year-on-year growth, including 350,000-400,000 yuan price range of the largest increase. Sales are now mainly concentrated in the 150,000-200,000 yuan price range, with cumulative sales reaching 643,000 units, up 80.5% year-on-year.

"Luxury cars achieved high growth in April, mainly due to the gradual improvement of the shortage of luxury cars caused by the shortage of chip supply in 2022 and the strengthening of the market." Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Committee, said.

New energy and car exports continue to grow rapidly

At the recently concluded 2023 Shanghai International Auto Show, the new energy vehicles with electrification and intelligence as the core "show muscle" at the scene, the major car companies have made efforts to new energy vehicle market, the Chinese new energy (4.230, -0.03, -0.70%) market as the key to future sales growth.

In April, the production and sales of new energy vehicles completed 640,000 units and 636,000 units respectively, an increase of 1.1 times year-on-year, with a market share of 29.5%. From January to April, the production and sales of new energy vehicles completed 2,291,000 units and 2,222,000 units respectively, an increase of 42.8% year-on-year, with a market share of 27%.

Some new energy vehicle companies continued their high growth in sales year-on-year. BYD sold 210,300 units in April, up 98% year-on-year and 2% YoY; GAC EAN sold 41,000 units, up 302% year-on-year and 2% YoY; Ideal Auto delivered 25,700 units, up 516% year-on-year and 23% YoY; Nezha Auto delivered a total of 11,100 units, up 26% year-on-year and 10% YoY. Nezha delivered 11,100 units, up 26 percent year-over-year and 10 percent sequentially.

According to the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Joint Committee, China's new energy passenger vehicle market returned to a steady state in April after a sprint for quarterly sales in March this year. As the heat of the price war gradually subsided, consumers' wait-and-see sentiment was eased and the previously suppressed demand was released, continuing the growth trend of the overall vehicle market at the end of March.

In addition, exports have also become a bright spot in the auto consumer market. 376,000 units were exported by auto companies in April, up 3.3% sequentially and 1.7 times year-on-year. Focusing on specific models, passenger cars exported 316,000 units in April, an increase of 3.7% YoY and 2.2 times YoY; new energy vehicles exported 100,000 units, an increase of 28.6% YoY and 8.4 times YoY. Among the top ten vehicle exporters, SAIC's exports reached 82,000 units, up 1.6 times year-on-year, accounting for 21.7% of total exports; BYD's export growth rate was the most significant, with exports reaching 15,000 units, up 15.5 times year-on-year.

Data from the General Administration of Customs show that in the first quarter of this year, the export of 1.07 million vehicles, an increase of 58.1% year-on-year. Among them, 388,000 new energy vehicles were exported, up 93.3% year-on-year. Russia, Mexico, Belgium's exports ranked in the top three, with strong market performance, and the top three countries for new energy vehicle exports were Belgium, Australia and Thailand.

Chen Shihua said that China's macroeconomic policies to lean forward to provide strong support for economic recovery, production and life order to speed up the recovery, production demand stabilized and rebounded, economic operation continued to rebound, to achieve a good start. Recently, the State Council executive meeting to further deploy economic stabilization measures to ensure that the industry's economic operation in a reasonable range. The stable operation of the macro economy is expected to promote the further release of consumer demand in the auto market.

(Article source: China Business News)