Differentiation intensifies the opening of the Chinese car market knockout competition

Recently, the car sales data for the whole year of 2017 was released: China's narrow sales of passenger cars reached 23.685 million vehicles, a year-on-year growth of 2.1%. Compared with the 5% predicted at the beginning of the year, the gap is still relatively large, and it is also the lowest point in recent years.

Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Association, told the Times Weekly reporter that since the first quarter of 2017, the auto market performance has been very sluggish. This has led many car makers to calmly respond to the market and adjust their targets so that they will no longer blindly impact sales. This also laid the tone for a weak car market throughout the year. In addition, as a result of the adjustment of the new energy automobile policy, it will have a certain impact on sales in the first half of 2017, as well as a reduction in the preferential rate of purchase tax. The overdraft in the passenger vehicle market in 2016 also affected the overall sales in 2017.

Under this premise, the competition in the Chinese auto market will also enter a new stage. Whether it is an independent brand or a joint venture brand, the intensification of internal competition will further lead to changes in the external structure.

The rising momentum of independent brands

In the year of 2017, the independent top brands led by Geely continued to develop in the top ten passenger car sales in China, and the joint venture brand automobile market faced unprecedented challenges.

Compared to the top ten list of wholesale sales in 2016, the top four in 2017 remained unchanged. They are still SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC General Motors, FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC-GM-Wuling. The fifth-placed Changan Automobile slipped to seventh place, and the seventh place Dongfeng Nissan climbed to fifth place. The biggest increase was in Geely Automobile, jumping from tenth to sixth. There was no change in the eighth and ninth places. It was still Great Wall Motor and Changan Ford. The biggest drop was Beijing Hyundai, which went straight from the sixth to the tenth.

In terms of subdivisions, the total retail sales of SUVs in 2017 reached 10.077 million units, and the annual retail sales of cars reached 11.66 million. It seems that the market share of the SUV has approached the car market. In terms of displacement, sales of passenger cars with a capacity of more than 1.6L continued to grow rapidly. In December alone, passenger cars with a capacity of more than 1.6L sold 752,000 units, an increase of 8.12% year-on-year, accounting for nearly 1/3 of the sales of passenger vehicles.

In the field of cars, the competition in 2017 was very fierce. The sedan also retained its position as the largest model in terms of sales. Among them, Buick Hideo, Nissan Sylphy, and Volkswagen New Lagada all competed for the top position in monthly sales. Ultimately, the new Laguna With 453,167 vehicles, it won the first place in the total sales of cars. Overall, the car sector is still the world of joint venture brands, and the only one who is in the top ten is the Geely Dorsett EC7, ranking ninth.

The SUV is still the main driving force behind the growth of the auto market, and it is also the only model with a year-on-year increase in sales. In 2017, a large number of new models entered the SUV market, which greatly weakened the sales of Haval H6. As a result, sales of Haval H6 dropped 13.5% year-on-year, but it still dominated the Chinese SUV market with annual sales of 500,458 vehicles.