Japanese brands surged, Korean brands plummeted, SAIC and Geely enjoyed great success

Kites fly, grass grows, and flowers bloom. As the temperature gradually rises, spring rains gradually enter the country. The sun rises in the east and rains in the west, and it is sometimes cold and sometimes hot. This is a common phenomenon in this season. The car market in the first quarter seems to be the same.

According to the automobile production and sales data for March 2017 released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on April 11, passenger car production in March was 2.188 million, up 1.78% year-on-year; sales were 2.0963 million, up 1.7% year-on-year. From January to March, automobile production and sales were 7.1331 million and 7.002 million respectively, of which passenger car production and sales were 6.1073 million and 5.9476 million respectively, up 6.84% and 4.63% year-on-year.

It is worth noting that if divided by series, Japanese cars had the largest sales growth in the first quarter, with their market share rising from 13.8% in the same period last year to 16.2% this year; Korean cars suffered the worst decline, from 6.5% in the same period last year to 4.6%, a decline of nearly 30%. As for the reasons, everyone can guess.

As can be seen from the table above, Chinese brands (independent brands) also performed well in the first quarter of this year, with their market share further increasing from 44.9% last year to 45.7%. Among them, Changan and Geely contributed the most, especially Geely, which sold 280,000 vehicles in the first quarter, nearly doubling its year-on-year growth.

German brands have not changed much. Although Mercedes-Benz and BMW have performed very well recently, Audi has suffered a bad fall, which has lowered the overall performance, so the share has only increased by 0.1 percentage points; American brands have declined by 0.7 percentage points; French brands have continued to decline by 1 percentage point, and their situation is also rather embarrassing.

Coincidentally, on the same day that the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released this data, another authoritative automobile industry association in China, the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Conference, also released automobile market sales data for March.

The difference is that the statistics of the China Passenger Car Association and the China Automobile Association are slightly different, but the difference is not too big. In addition, the data of the China Passenger Car Association also confirms a fact - the sales of Korean cars have plummeted.

From the above two tables released by the China Passenger Car Association, we can see that in March, no Korean brands were found in terms of domestic sales or domestic and overseas sales. The top ten brands were SAIC Volkswagen, FAW Volkswagen, SAIC-GM-Wuling, SAIC GM, Changan Automobile, Geely Automobile, Great Wall, Dongfeng Nissan, FAW Toyota, and Changan Ford. Before that, Beijing Hyundai, the representative of Korean brands, had always been among the top five joint venture automakers in terms of sales.

Another data released by the China Passenger Car Association showed that Beijing Hyundai's sales in March this year plummeted by 50.6%, with sales falling from 91,106 vehicles in the same period last year to 45,010 vehicles in March this year. The situation of Korean cars is evident.

Changan Ford also saw a sharp drop in sales in March, with a decline of more than 30%, dragging down the overall performance of American cars. Other brands, except SAIC Volkswagen, which declined by 3.3%, all saw growth. Domestic brands saw the largest growth, with SAIC Passenger Cars and Geely Auto growing by more than 140% and 127% respectively, and GAC Trumpchi also growing by 41.7%.

In the cumulative sales data from January to March, the most obvious growth is still in the domestic brands, with SAIC Passenger Car, Geely and GAC Trumpchi ranking the 123rd fastest growing brands respectively. Changan Ford became the one with the largest decline in the first quarter, followed by Beijing Hyundai.

According to the classification of vehicle models, SUVs are the main support for the continued growth of the auto market, which is also the magic weapon for domestic brands to maintain high growth this year. According to the two tables above, SUVs had the largest increase in March, with sales reaching 791,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 18.4%. From January to March, SUV sales reached 2.277 million units, a year-on-year increase of 15.1%, making it the only segment of passenger cars with double growth.

The sales volume of sedans in March was 912,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 5.3%. The cumulative sales volume in the first quarter was 2.575 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 9.4%. The sales volume of MPVs in March was 199,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 8.3%. The cumulative sales volume in the first quarter was 554,000 units, a decrease of 13.6%.

In general, the explosive growth of Japanese cars in the first quarter of this year is due to the rapid introduction of new cars, such as Honda's new Civic, UR-V, Toyota Vision, Nissan X-Trail, etc. On the other hand, it is also due to the great efforts made by Japanese cars in introducing new technologies since last year, which has attracted the attention of a large number of consumers. The reason for the sharp drop in Korean cars is also obvious, and there is no need to elaborate here. Under the current situation, its situation may not be able to recover in a short time.

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.