The auto market continued to be sluggish in August. These factors may lead to negative growth in the auto market throughout the year.

Data released by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed that in August, a total of 1,734,188 narrow passenger cars were sold in my country, a year-on-year decrease of 7.4% and a month-on-month increase of 11.1%.

After experiencing a sluggish auto market in June and July, the auto market not only failed to reverse in August, but instead accelerated its decline, with sales even falling below the level of the previous year. This also lowered the cumulative sales growth rate from January to August to 1.3%. The overall situation of the auto market is not optimistic.

In recent years, August has always been a turning point for the auto market to reverse and strengthen. However, after experiencing the bleak performance in June and July this year, the auto market continued to decline rapidly in August, which shows that the growth pressure on the auto market is extremely severe.

The core reason for the decline in the auto market is the rapid decline of domestic brand cars. In August, sales of domestic brand narrow passenger cars fell by 12.0% year-on-year.

In terms of specific vehicle models, the year-on-year decline in sedans and SUVs continued to expand in August, dragging down the cumulative growth rate for the whole year.

In recent months, the hot sales of high-end cars have become an important pillar for stabilizing the auto market, among which high-end brand cars have performed particularly well. In August, sales of high-end cars increased by 12.0% year-on-year.

The SUV market, which has driven the rapid development of domestic brands in recent years, is also cooling down rapidly as domestic SUVs are sluggish. In August, SUV sales totaled 716,527 units, down 8.5% year-on-year, mainly due to the 14.0% decline in domestic SUVs, which also lowered the cumulative sales growth of SUVs from January to August to 2.8%.

The decline of domestic SUVs is not only due to their own bottlenecks, but also from the impact of joint venture brands. In particular, against the backdrop of the 10th consecutive increase in refined oil prices this year, Japanese SUVs with lower fuel consumption have gradually strengthened; in addition, as Volkswagen began to focus on the SUV market, it also quickly occupied a certain market share.

In this year's poorly performing auto market, new energy vehicles have become the biggest bright spot. In August, sales of new energy vehicles reached 84,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 61.7%. It is worth noting that in August, sales of A00-class pure electric new energy vehicles accounted for 38% of the total sales of pure electric vehicles, 2 percentage points lower than A-class electric vehicles, which also shows that my country's new energy vehicle market is developing in the direction of high quality and long endurance.

Due to the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, there was one less working day in September this year than in the same period last year, which was not conducive to car sales; at the same time, although there were many new cars on the market at the just-concluded Chengdu Auto Show, there was a lack of heavyweight models that could strongly drive the growth of the auto market.

In September 2017, the withdrawal of the purchase tax reduction policy brought about a huge boost in sales, which led to a significant increase in car sales in the same period last year. The high base will also bring great pressure to the car market in September this year. This year's car market promotion has reached its peak ahead of schedule, so it is difficult for the market to have a bright performance in the later period.

The penetration rate of private cars in China's passenger car market is still relatively low, and there is still great potential for development in the future. However, the high base caused by the continued rapid growth of the car market in recent years has also brought great pressure on the growth of the car market this year.

In particular, the rapid rise in housing prices in the central and western regions has caused consumers to invest all their assets in the housing market, making it difficult for the auto market to recover; in addition, factors such as the shrinking wealth of residents and the continued unfavorable Sino-US trade war will also affect the performance of the auto market.

The implementation of the National VI standard in the future will also have a great impact on the auto market. Many automakers can only rush to clear out their inventory of National V models, but there are not enough National VI emission models to be put into production.

Taking all the above factors into consideration, the China Passenger Car Association has lowered its forecast for the passenger car market's growth rate this year from 4% to -1%.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.