According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), domestic sales of narrowly defined passenger vehicles (sedans + SUVs + MPVs) reached 1.587 million units in March this year, an increase of 14.3 percent from February, and an increase of 0.3 percent from last year, and the frantic promotions of the major automakers for fuel vehicles have indeed played a role. But looking at the first quarter, China's auto market totaled just 4.266 million units from January to March, down 13.4 percent from last year. Among them, sedans and SUVs fell the most, with the former at 14.8% and the latter at 13.6%. On the contrary, the new energy vehicle market, January-March year-on-year growth of 22.4%, accounting for 30.8% of all sales, the performance is still very strong. So in the fuel car price cuts, new energy vehicles continue to continue to new environment, the car market in March this year and what ups and downs of the drama? Then read on!
First of all, let's take a look at the hot new energy market, which saw sales of new energy vehicles soar even higher in March, with the percentage of sales increasing from 31.6 percent in February to 34.22 percent. This means that in the March car market, every 3 cars sold, there is a new energy to get a green license. This shows that the recognition of new energy vehicles today has long been a non-issue.
Specifically, the Tesla Model Y took the No. 1 spot with monthly sales of nearly 55,000 units, and more than doubled compared with last month. In addition to delivering some of the orders that have accumulated since the January price cut, it also has a lot to do with the fact that Tesla's Shanghai factory needs to export overseas. At present, Tesla Shanghai factory basically rotates sales between domestic and export, that is, specializing in export for one month and domestic market for one month. So you will find that Tesla's sales will always show wave-like changes, high and low. As for the 8th-ranked Model 3, the single-month figure of 21,700 units is also excellent, only that the more personal driving-oriented Model 3 is not so popular with family users than the more spacious and practical Model Y.
As a car that's been on the market for just a year and a month, and as one of the few pure EVs in BYD's lineup, the Yuan PLUS has been a phenomenal performer. It should be noted that of BYD's 1.86 million sales last year, plug-in hybrids accounted for more than 50 percent, indicating that people still prefer to buy BYD's plug-in hybrids. Under such circumstances, the Yuan PLUS, as an SUV offering only pure electric power, still managed to get 27,907 units of monthly sales, which is enough to show how competitive it is among pure electric SUVs at the 150,000 price point!
Some people are happy and some are sad that the Wuling Hongguang MINIEV, the representative model of pure electric small cars, has recently started to go downhill, with sales of only 23,159 units in March, down 44.8% year-on-year. The reason for this is not difficult to understand, first of all, the audience of the ultra-low-priced market is actually not so much, a lot of people who should buy this car may have already bought it. Secondly, today's MINEV prices have also seen some upward adjustments, and even the cheapest lithium iron phosphate easy model has basically reached a not-so-cheap 36,000 yuan landed price! Not to mention the better-powered, more expensive versions. What's more, the success of the Hongguang MINIEV has led many car companies to follow suit and build these "floor price" EVs, diluting some of their sales.
A representative example of this is the Panda mini, which Geely launched in February. Although the starting price of 39,900 yuan is not as extreme as the Honda MINIEV, the Panda mini is not only cheaper, but also supports DC fast charging if you compare it with the same range. This means that the panda mini is no longer limited to home charging or very rare public **** AC charging piles, you can drive it to the shopping center, you can use the time to shop and eat to the vehicle to replenish the energy, greatly increasing the panda mini's use of the radius. Because of this, the Panda mini got more than 10,000 units sold in the 1st full month of its launch, and successfully rushed to the 12th position in the new energy list.
The Tengnuo D9, which is No. 13 on the new energy list, is a car that's well worth talking about. Compared to SUVs or sedans, MPVs have a significantly smaller audience, so it's rare for an MPV like the Tengshi D9 to appear on the new energy list, with sales of 10,398 units at No. 14. In fact, since last year, a number of domestic brands have been struggling in the new energy MPV segment, including the Tengshi D9, which is part of BYD's lineup. BYD's current ridiculously high brand appeal aside, compared to traditional HEV hybrid MPVs and pure electric MPVs, Tengshi D9 PHEV's form of power also allows it to take business clients or family members on long-distance journeys while possessing an ultra-low cost of use for urban commuting. Obviously, such capability is actually more in line with MPV car needs.
I don't know if you've noticed that the visibility of the Deep Blue SL03 on the road is getting higher and higher lately, so the Deep Blue SL03 also appeared on the new energy list in March, with 8,568 units, which is a good performance. At this point, you must be curious about how the Deep Blue SL03 succeeded? In fact, looking at the sales of the SL03, we can see that it is not the pure electric version that starts at 189,900 yuan that accounts for the bulk of the sales, but the range extender version that has a 1.5L engine but is priced at only 171,900 yuan. It's not hard to understand why, as the extended-range version's smaller battery brings a lower price, and there are no range or replenishment concerns, so high sales are justified.
Of course, the fact that the Deep Blue SL03 Extended Range Edition has been a hot seller is thanks to Ideal, which has been focusing on promoting extended-range power, and if not for Ideal's hot streak, consumer acceptance of extended-range power would never have been so high. After Ideal successively launched L9, L8 and L7, Ideal's overall product strategy has finally been realized. In terms of sales, the L7, with a cheaper price tag, boasts the highest sales volume, selling 7,702 units in March***. The L8, which is used in a wider range of scenarios than the L7, came in second at 6,224 units. As for the flagship L9, it has finally come to its rightful place, with 5,831 units sold, although it ranks last in the "L family", after all, there is no flagship car of any automobile company that is the top seller.
After looking at the new energy market, let's take a look at the sedan market. First of all, last month announced a substantial subsidy of Citroen C6 did not get on the list of top fifteen, can be seen in the huge discounts, C6 is only a relatively high degree of network heat, the French car to monthly sales of more than 10,000, is still a pipe dream. The Rang Yi and Xuan Yi continue to occupy the top two gasoline sedan sales, just more than 20,000 sales, for these two cars is really not too outstanding.
What's more noteworthy is that the 10th-generation Honda Accord, which has been suppressed by the Camry for almost its entire product cycle, suddenly became strong in March, with sales of 20,158 units going straight to No. 8 for sedans. The reason for the Accord's sales growth is very simple: the 11th-generation Accord is about to hit the market, and the 10th-generation Accord has begun its price-cutting and inventory-clearing journey. Taking the Accord's best-selling 260TURBO Phantom Night Premium Edition as an example, its current discounted price has basically reached the level of 25,000-30,000 yuan, much larger than the range of 15,000 yuan at the end of last year. This means that the 260TURBO Phantom Night Premium Edition bare car price is basically only 175,000 yuan. And with such a tempting price, consumers are choosing to vote with real money, allowing Accord sales to increase by 35.7 percent.
In addition to the Accord, Audi A6L also followed the wave of price cuts in March this year to give a substantial discount, which, the lowest 40TFSI discounts basically came close to the level of 120,000 yuan, that is to say, the price of an Audi A6L bare car only needs 300,000 yuan! Such a move directly let the A6L successfully take out the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class, with 15,614 units to get the 1st place in the luxury brand of medium-sized sedans, sedan list 11th place results.
Since the new generation of Mercedes-Benz C-Class only offers 1.5T engine, the sales of the new generation of Mercedes-Benz C-Class, code-named W206, can be described as dismal compared to the previous generation of Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which was able to fight with the 3-Series in a back-and-forth battle. So in March this year, Mercedes-Benz took out 80,000 yuan of concessions, the starting price of the C 260 L directly dry to 270,000 yuan. Such a price for a "three-pointed star", certainly will make consumers move, and finally achieved 14,000 units of monthly sales, force BMW 3 series ranked 13th on the list.
In the face of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class dump, the BMW 3 Series also made a strong comeback through price concessions. But after all, this generation of 3 Series has a higher degree of comprehensive recognition, so BMW's price cut is not as high as the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, in which the 156-horsepower 320 model is similar to the Mercedes-Benz C260L, both around 270,000 yuan; the 325, which has better power, comes to a price of nearly 290,000 yuan. And at these prices, the BMW 3 Series wasn't too far behind the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, still garnering sales of 13,924 units and coming in at No. 15 on the list.
The pattern of the contemporary SUV market has basically been finalized, with the top three spots completely taken up by new energy models, followed by the Changan CS75 and H6, which have been battling to the death in the "last era", but the gap between gasoline and pure-electric cars is not as wide as in the sedan market. The SUV market, pure electric models and fuel models have appeared a clear fault, it seems that consumers prefer new energy SUV models.
Since the old rival Mercedes-Benz GLC is at the point of time when the old and the new are being replaced, BMW X3 has successfully taken the throne of the luxury SUV champion in March, with 12,880 units sold in a single month ranking No. 7 on the overall SUV list. Currently the BMW X3 has a certain amount of incentives, and is really a good choice for those who are looking for handling and branding, but don't value rear space so much.
No. 9 on the SUV list is a less familiar face, the FAW-Volkswagen Tangyue. In the new energy environment, even Volkswagen has felt a sense of crisis, so almost all of FAW-Volkswagen's models have increased discounts, and the Tangyue is one of them. With 40,000 yuan in discounts, sales of the Tanyue reached 11,953 units in March, ranking No. 9 on the SUV list.
If the BMW X3 on the list is a regular operation, then the BMW X1 on the list is definitely very rare. After all, although this car has a lot of space, the entry version with a three-cylinder engine is always a shortcoming that dissuades many potential users. But now the BMW X1 on the list, largely because the new generation of X1 will be released in a few days at the Shanghai Auto Show, so the current X1 has close to 100,000 yuan of concessions, the lowest 1.5T version of the naked car price of only about 180,000 yuan, which is 40,000 yuan cheaper than the same level Audi Q3. For consumers at this price point, even if the X1's interior isn't quite what it should be, it's cheap enough to make the order!
For consumers who feel that the BMW X3 doesn't have enough space, the Audi Q5L at the same price point is definitely a more suitable choice, and the increased rear space brought about by the lengthening makes it perfect for any traveling needs of a family. So at a time when the GLC is broken between the old and the new, the Q5L also achieved sales of 11,000 units in March, ranking 14th on the list.
Finally, let's take a look at the MPV market. Although new energy MPVs are now blowing up, the Buick GL8 still occupies the No. 1 spot on the list, followed by the Wuling Hongguang, which is selling fewer and fewer units, and the No. 3 spot goes to the Tengshi D9, which has already been featured in the article above.
You have to admit that for MPV consumers, a domineering appearance does increase goodwill to a certain extent, and the TranSwitch M8 is a good example of this! . Since the launch of the more dominant-looking Zongshi series, the M8's sales have seen a further increase! With 8,420 units sold, it doesn't lag too far behind the GL8, the granddaddy of all domestic MPVs.
Also because of the appearance of the people to buy a single there is the extreme Krypton 009. pure electric status is not so in line with the use of MPV needs, but the extreme Krypton 009 that parked next to the Elfa will not be shy of the stage of the appearance of the design, especially black + black mesh model comes with a strong aura, as well as can be used to describe the luxury of the interior materials, if you do not run a long distance, but just drive it to the city commuting or to go to the airport, hotel pick-up and drop-off customers, then the Krypton 009 is not the best choice for the future. Airport, hotel pick up and drop off customers, then the Extreme Krypton 009 is all that makes it the perfect car in the minds of consumers who do not run long distances. As a result, it also came to the 12th position in the March 2023 MPV list, *** selling 2,146 units!
Overall, the car market in March can basically be summarized in four words - price cuts and sales. New energy's multiplying success has made all the companies that own fuel cars start to have a sense of crisis. And their solution is also very uniform, is to reduce their profits to ensure that sales do not decline too much. In addition, through the list of fuel car sales data, in addition to those few priced at 100,000 yuan level of familiar figures, most of the fuel cars on the list basically came to 200,000 or even 300,000 yuan level. Such a scene, people can not help but think, will not be in the near future, fuel cars will be like a mechanical watch as the rich people's toys? And ordinary people will wear more accurate, more functional smart watches or electronic watches? Let's wait and see!
This article is from the author of the Carrot Report, copyright ? 2012, please contact the author for any form of reproduction.