China Automobile Dealers Association: Analysis of China's imported automobile market in September 2022

Customs import volume

(I) Supply: After three years of decline, automobile imports increased slightly in 2021 and entered negative growth again in 2022. From January to September, 671,000 vehicles were imported, a decrease of 11%; the import value reached 269.76 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.25%.

Imported car sales

(2) Demand: In recent years, the terminal demand for imported vehicles has remained relatively stable. Affected by the short-term impact of the epidemic and chips, the imported automobile market declined from 2020 to 2022. From January to September 2022, sales were 586,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 20.7%. Among them, September decreased by 11.7% year-on-year, a slight increase compared to August, showing a recovery trend.

Imported automobile industry inventory

(III) Inventory: With supply being less than demand in 2019-2020, the inventory depth of the entire imported automobile industry has declined significantly; in 2021, supply and demand were basically balanced, but sales declined; as of September 2022, the inventory depth rose sharply to 3.5 months, which is at a high level. Judging from the trend in the past three months, it has shown a downward trend month by month.

Customs import car declaration unit price

(IV) Price: The unit price of imported automobiles has increased year by year. From 2015 to 2022, the unit price of imported automobiles has increased from 252,100 yuan to 402,000 yuan, breaking through the 400,000 yuan mark. The first reason is the consumption upgrading trend, the second is the localization trend of low-priced products, and the third is the recent depreciation of the exchange rate.

Imported car brand structure

(V) Brand structure: Affected by the epidemic, the overall imported car market has declined sharply, and super luxury cars have become more popular among consumers. Super luxury cars have increased significantly by 15.18% year-on-year this month. From January to September, luxury cars are still the main sales force, accounting for more than 90%.

Imported passenger cars by brand

From January to September 2022, among the top ten brands, Porsche and Toyota both achieved positive growth, among which Porsche achieved growth for the first time in total; Lexus, which ranked first, sold more than 140,000 units, but decreased by 22.14% year-on-year; Mercedes-Benz sales exceeded 120,000 units, but decreased by 8.54% year-on-year. The domestic production of models caused the sales of BMW and Audi to decline by 34.48% and 44.82% respectively.

Imported car model structure

(VI) Model structure: From January to September 2022, the three major models all experienced declines to varying degrees, with MPVs experiencing the lowest decline, down 4.39% year-on-year, and sedans and SUVs declining by 20.49 and 21.91 percentage points, respectively. The year-on-year decline of the niche sedan cabrio model was greater than the overall market, exceeding 50%.

Imported car displacement structure

(VII) Displacement shifts downward: the 1.5-2.0L displacement range accounts for 47.7%, which has declined compared to 2021, but still remains the largest displacement range; the 2.5-3.0L displacement range increased by 0.9 percentage points compared to 2021, and is the second largest displacement range; parallel imported models have gradually resumed supply, and the share of displacement above 3.0L has rebounded to 4.3%.

Imported new energy vehicles

(VIII) Fluctuations in sales of imported new energy vehicles: From 2016 to 2018, sales of imported new energy vehicles were between 15,000 and 20,000 units. Driven by Model 3, sales of imported new energy vehicles soared to 60,000 units in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 191%, accounting for 5.4% of the total imported vehicles. With the domestic production of models, sales volume fell back to 27,500 units in 2020. With the contribution of PHEV, sales in 2021 increased by 26.2% year-on-year. From January to September 2022, NEV sales were 21,437 units, a year-on-year decrease of 10.88%. Sales in September were 2,307 units, a year-on-year decrease of 35.52%. Among them, sales of pure electric models were less than 600 units, a year-on-year decrease of 39.47%.