Recently, the sales data of major car companies in January have been released, and the sales of most car companies have shown a similar pattern: year-on-year growth, month-on-month decline. This is largely related to the fact that car companies overdrew their sales in January in December last year in order to sprint the annual sales KPI.
The China Automobile Dealers Association predicted in early February that the national retail sales of passenger cars in the narrow sense in January would be about 2.2 million, down 65%。The China Passenger Car Association estimates that the wholesale sales of new energy passenger car manufacturers in January will be 700,000 units, down 37% month-on-month.
This is why there is a saying in the industry: in January every year, the car sales of major car companies are not to see who increases more, but to see who declines less. In other words, in January, everyone will basically see a month-on-month decline, and the difference is only to see who has fallen less. Of course, if the month-on-month decline is too large, it may be a different story.
In January, the sales data generally showed an "optimistic" trend, but several car companies were worried, and their sales fell sharply month-on-month, far exceeding the overall decline in the automotive industry, such as Xpeng, Aion, Weilai, etc.
Xpeng Motors sold 8,250 vehicles in January, not even breaking through 10,000 units, and this sales volume also put Xpeng in the same rank as AVATR and VOYAH, which have a much smaller product lineup, and ranked at the bottom of the five major new power car companies. Compared with 20,115 units in December last year, Xpeng's sales in January fell sharply by 59% month-on-month, which can be described as a cliff**.
In the face of a sharp decline in sales, He Xiaopeng seemed to be very optimistic, and responded on Weibo that this was because there were too many orders for Xpeng X9 in January, and the production capacity could not keep up, and the ** of Xpeng G9 was also affected. According to He Xiaopeng, the first sales volume of Xiaopeng Motors in January turned out to be because there were too many orders. At present, Xpeng X9 has started large-scale delivery in more than 100 cities across the country, with a total of 2,478 units delivered, of which nearly 70% of the MAX version has been purchased.
GAC Aion's sales in January were 24,947 units, down 45 percent month-on-month from 45,947 units in December last year7%, which can almost be regarded as a "halving" of sales. In other words, Aion's sales have dropped to almost half of last month's sales in just one month. I'm afraid this can't be explained by the phrase "sales were overdrawn at the end of the year".
It is worth mentioning that although GAC Aion's monthly sales were large last year, except for September, which exceeded 50,000 units, the other months were basically stable at 4-4In the range of 50,000 units, the month-on-month growth was significantly weaker. Industry insiders speculate that this may be related to the fact that it mainly sells online car-hailing on the B-side, and when the online car-hailing market becomes saturated, its sales will show weak growth or even decline. The "halving" of Aion's sales in January can't help but make the outside world more worried.
NIO sold 10,055 units in January, down 44% month-on-month from 18,012 units in December last year18%, which can be regarded as a "halving". It is reported that NIO's 2024 model with upgraded hardware configuration will be delivered in March, and its new brand Alps will also be launched in the second half of this year. The highly concerned NIO ET9 will also be launched in the near future, **800,000 yuan, but it is estimated that it will not be delivered until next year.
Leapmotor delivered a total of 12,277 vehicles in January, down 34% month-on-month1%。Leap's sales target for 2024 is 300,000-400,000 units, and judging from the sales in January, it is quite difficult to successfully achieve the target. Fortunately, Leapmotor will launch a series of models at the end of the first quarter of this year, including the C model, the C model, the C01, etc., and the rich product lineup will be conducive to its sales increase.
Recently, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released the latest issue of the "Automobile Consumption Index":The automobile consumption index for January 2024 is 307. The month-on-month decline was sharp year-on-year, which indicates that automobile consumption in February may decline more sharply than in January.
As for how to alleviate the decline in automobile consumption in the future, "Bang Party" believes that it is nothing more than three points: first, start from the best aspects, increase the first strength, increase the frequency and models involved. For example, Tesla, Xpeng, and Ideal have launched price cuts in January, especially Tesla, which has made several price cuts in just one month.
The second is to actively explore overseas markets, from "involution" to "outward", and sell more cars to the blank markets of developed countries and developing countries, just like Chery, which has already done this, and Zhiji and Nezha, who are doing this. Take Nezha as an example, Nezha's sales in January were 10,032 units, compared with 5,135 units in December last year, an increase of 95 month-on-month37%, almost doubled, is a rare car company to achieve a significant increase in sales month-on-month.
Among the 10,032 units sold in Nezha in January, 2,821 units were sold overseas. It is reported that Nezha Automobile's sales target for 2024 is 300,000 units, of which 100,000 units will be sold overseas. Nezha said that in the new year, the overseas market will be its key target, and it will accelerate the production and landing of factories in Indonesia, the Middle East, Europe, the Americas and other places.
The third is to enrich the product lineup and improve product technology. The most typical representative of this aspect is BYD, the reason why BYD's sales can be unbeatable, and its rich product variety, the product itself is not unrelated to the technology. At present, in addition to many models of the Ocean and Dynasty series, BYD also has brands such as Denza, Yangwang, and Equation LeopardThe rich product lineup can not only bloom in more places, but also effectively hedge risks even when encountering fluctuations in sales.
In short, regardless of whether these car companies are holding back the overall sales of the auto industry, the decline in sales is a problem they must face, because sales are ultimately related to whether they can get out of the cruel competition - before the industry situation has settled, for these car companies, survival is the most important thing.