SINOMACH Automobile: China's imported automobile market situation in August 2022

1. Supply

After three years of decline, automobile imports saw a slight increase in 2021 and then entered negative growth again in 2022. From January to August, 592,000 vehicles were imported, a decline of 12.3%; the import value reached 240.56 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.7%.

2. Demand

In recent years, terminal demand for imported vehicles has remained relatively stable. Affected by the epidemic and short-term impact of chips, the imported automobile market declined from 2020 to 2022. From January to August 2022, sales were 517,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 21.8%, of which August decreased by 5% year-on-year, a slight increase compared to July, showing a recovery trend.

3. Inventory

As supply was less than demand in 2019-20, the inventory depth of the entire imported automobile industry showed a significant decline; supply and demand were basically balanced in 2021, but sales declined; as of August 2022, the inventory depth rose sharply to 3.8 months, which was at a high level. Judging from the trend in the past three months, it showed a downward trend month by month.

4. Price

The unit price of imported automobile customs declarations has increased year by year. From 2015 to 2022, the unit price of imported automobile customs declarations increased from 252,100 yuan to 406,000 yuan, breaking through the 400,000 yuan mark. The first reason is the consumption upgrading trend, the second is the trend of localization of low-priced products, and the third is the recent depreciation of the exchange rate.

5. Brand Structure

Affected by the epidemic, the overall imported car market has declined sharply, and super luxury cars and luxury cars are more popular among consumers. Super luxury cars increased by 11.0% year-on-year this month. From January to August, luxury cars are still the main sales force, accounting for more than 90%.

VI. Vehicle Structure

From January to August 2022, the three major models all experienced declines to varying degrees, with MPVs experiencing the lowest decline, down 4.9% year-on-year, while sedans and SUVs saw declines narrow by 13.3 and 1 percentage points, respectively. Among sedans, the sportback segment saw a larger year-on-year decline than the overall market, exceeding 50%.

7. Displacement down

The 1.5-2.0L displacement range accounts for 47.6%, which has declined compared to 2021, but still remains the largest displacement range; the 2.5-3.0L displacement range increased by 1.1 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 5.3%.

8. Sales of imported new energy vehicles fluctuate

From 2016 to 2018, the sales of imported new energy vehicles were between 15,000 and 20,000 units. Driven by Model 3, the 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, the sales scale 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 August 2022, NEV sales were 19,130 units, a year-on-year decrease of 6.57%. Sales in August were 3,011 units, a year-on-year decrease of 5.5%, but among them, sales of pure electric models exceeded 1,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 33.3%.