China Passenger Car Association: China's auto sales in April 2022 were 1.043 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 35.5%

The trend of new energy vehicles is irreversible! April this year may be the bleakest moment in the domestic auto market in recent years, but new energy vehicles have become the only highlight. According to data from the China Passenger Car Association, the domestic auto market sales in April were 1.043 million vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 35.5% and a month-on-month decrease of 34.0%. However, in this environment where "no decline is considered a win", new energy vehicles have bucked the trend and sold a total of 282,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 78.5%.

Behind the rise of new energy vehicles against the trend, who is eating the meat and who is drinking the soup?

Recently, the domestic insurance data for new energy vehicles in April was released, revealing the answer for us. According to national regulations, new cars must purchase compulsory insurance before they are put on the road, so the insurance data is the most authentic sales data, reflecting the real sales volume of the car market.

After reviewing the insurance data, the Chedongxi team found several key points:

1. In April, the number of conventional energy vehicles insured decreased by 49.7% year-on-year, while new energy vehicles increased by 57.7% year-on-year. The overall auto market decreased by 38.8% year-on-year - new energy vehicles took off against the trend.

2. The proportion of new energy vehicles insured has reached 26% of the total insurance volume, among which hybrid vehicles run faster than pure electric vehicles.

3. The sales figures and insurance figures announced by some companies are quite different, with a difference of about 10%+.

4. Domestic cars have become the sales leader in the new energy vehicle market, with Hongguang MINI firmly at the top of the list and BYD occupying six of the top ten seats.

5. BYD once again takes the top spot in the new energy vehicle market, Volkswagen squeezes into the top five, and NIO, Xpeng and Li Auto almost fall out of the top ten

6. Tesla was forced to "stay at home in quarantine", and the number of vehicles insured in April was less than 2,000.

Bonus of this article: Under the influence of the black swan of the epidemic, the new energy vehicle market still outperformed the overall market. Share the report "Domestic epidemic disturbs the auto market, and new energy vehicle production and sales are under pressure " , reply [ Car East West 0352] in the dialog box to download the report.

01 .

Car model list: BYD dominates the list, while Tesla fails to make the list

First, let’s take a look at which new energy vehicles sold the best in April?

Top 20 new energy vehicle models insured in April

It is not difficult to find from the above picture that among the top ten, BYD actually occupies 6 seats, and BYD Song, Qin, Yuan, Han, Dolphin and Tang directly occupy the second to seventh places on the list.

The insurance volume of these six product series reached 83,827 vehicles, contributing to BYD's main insurance data, but there was still a certain decline compared with March.

The Qin series saw the most significant decline, down 41.1% month-on-month, followed by the Song series, down 29.7%, and the Tang series, down 26.4%. Fortunately, the decline in other products was not significant.

If we look at the year-on-year data, BYD's performance is very exaggerated. Both the Song series and Yuan series have achieved growth of more than 1000%, which is 10 times the same period last year. The growth rate is very exaggerated, which also shows BYD's strong situation this year.

BYD Yuan PLUS

However, not all of these models are pure electric. After a period of capacity expansion, the sales data of BYD's DMi hybrid models have also been steadily increasing, and it has become BYD's best-selling model.

In addition to BYD, Wuling Hongguang MINI EV still firmly occupies the first place in insurance volume and continues to be the best-selling new energy vehicle, but the competitiveness of the product has declined slightly.

In April, due to the epidemic, the insurance volume of Wuling Hongguang MINI EV fell by 40.6% month-on-month, almost halved, and more importantly, it also fell by 3.4% compared with the same period last year. At present, there are many models in the new energy vehicle market that directly compete with Wuling Hongguang MINI EV. It is hard to say whether this car can maintain its current position in the future.

Affected by the Shanghai epidemic, Tesla's deliveries in April were very bleak. The two models sold in China, Model Y and Model 3, did not appear in the top ten, and were not even in the top twenty.

With the orderly resumption of work and production in Shanghai, Tesla is expected to make a strong comeback in May.

Among new car companies, Leapmotor T03 entered the tenth place in the single car insurance volume ranking for the first time, with a month-on-month growth of 32.6%, becoming the only new car company model in the top ten. Similar to T03 is Nezha V, which also has a good insurance volume. Although it fell by 22.8% month-on-month, it is still the second best-selling model among new car companies. It can be seen that the market below 100,000 yuan still has good potential.

Nezha V Pro

The sales of P7 and ONE, the leading models of Xpeng Motors and Li Auto, declined significantly, with a month-on-month decline of more than 60%.

Overall, it is not difficult to find that the insurance volume of domestic new energy vehicles in April has been declining compared with the previous month. Only some models have achieved a slight growth. The overall market situation is not good.

Despite this, most models have achieved growth compared with the same period last year, among which Nezha U achieved a year-on-year growth of 4051.6%. This also shows that the new energy vehicle market is constantly improving and there is great hope that it will set new records this year.

02 .

Car company rankings: BYD ranks first, Volkswagen becomes the face of joint ventures

After looking at the specific models, let’s take a look at which car companies contributed the majority of the insurance volume?

Top 20 new energy vehicle companies insured in April

BYD has now become the best-selling new energy vehicle company in China. In April, the number of insurance registrations reached 88,941 vehicles. Although this was a 14.8% decrease compared to the previous month, it was a 306.2% increase compared to the same period last year.

That is to say, after completely abandoning fuel vehicles, BYD's sales have achieved significant growth.

Brands such as GAC and Chery also continued to maintain their dark horse status. Although they have declined to varying degrees month-on-month, they still continue to occupy important positions in the top ten list, and Geely is also accelerating its pace in electrification.

In addition to the continued efforts of traditional car companies, the influence of new car companies is also increasing further. Nezha, Xiaopeng and Leapmotor are all among the top ten brands on the list. Previously, there have been almost no cases of three new car companies entering the top ten at the same time.

Judging from the entire list, domestic independent car companies have begun to make efforts in the field of new energy vehicles. Among the top ten lists, there are 9 domestic car brands, and there are 17 domestic brands in the top 20 lists.

In the field of new energy vehicles, the situation where joint venture cars occupied the main market is gone forever, and the market appeal of domestic car companies is significantly increasing.

Among all the joint venture brands, only Volkswagen performed well. It was the only car company with more than 10,000 vehicles insured, ranking fifth.

Volkswagen ID.3

Although both the North and South Volkswagen were directly affected by the epidemic in April, the insurance volume only fell by 19.9%, which was relatively small, and there was also a certain degree of improvement compared with last year.

Tesla, which is also in the epidemic-affected area, was obviously more affected and did not even make it into the top 20 list.

Judging from the list of car companies, in the competition for new energy vehicles, domestic car companies have already taken the first-mover advantage, while overseas car companies are still in the exploratory stage, and this pattern may continue for some time.

03 .

Tesla was the most affected, with only 1,728 vehicles sold in April

If we were to say which car company was most affected in April, it would undoubtedly be Tesla.

Tesla insurance statistics in April

Tesla's long-standing model is zero inventory. The models delivered to consumers are all the latest produced. If Tesla stops production, no new cars will be delivered.

Tesla's Shanghai factory stopped production on March 28 and did not resume work until April 19. In other words, Tesla only had 11 working days in April, and nearly two-thirds of its employees were unable to return to work after resuming work.

Therefore, Tesla’s insurance data for April is not very good.

The best-selling model Model Y had 1,139 insured vehicles, a significant decrease of 97.1% from the previous month and 79.4% from the previous year. The situation of another car, Model 3, was even worse, with only 589 insured vehicles, a decrease of more than 90% from the previous month and the previous year.

Overall, Tesla's insurance volume in April fell 97.3% month-on-month and 85.5% year-on-year.

However, the epidemic in Shanghai has been basically under control at this stage, and factories are resuming work and production in an orderly manner. It is expected that full resumption of work and production will be achieved this month, and production capacity should be guaranteed.

Tesla Shanghai Factory

Tesla is not short of orders at present. Tesla's official website shows that the current delivery time for Model 3 is 20 to 24 weeks, and the delivery time for Model Y is 10 to 14 weeks. In other words, the only factor affecting Tesla's sales is production capacity.

As long as production capacity increases rapidly in May and transportation capacity is restored, Tesla's insurance data will also return strongly in May.

04 .

NIO and Ideal were deeply affected, and the insurance volume of Leapmotor increased significantly

In terms of new car manufacturing, the top five pattern has now been consolidated, and Nezha and Leapmotor have good insurance volume data.

Statistics on insurance claims of the top five new car manufacturers in April

From the list, Leapmotor is the most surprising. Due to the impact of the epidemic, the insurance volume of almost all new car models in April decreased month-on-month, while Leapmotor T03 and NIO ET7 were the only two models that achieved month-on-month growth.

NIO ET7 was only delivered at the end of March, so it is not surprising that the insurance volume increased month-on-month.

Leapmotor T03 is another model that has achieved a month-on-month increase. This car is mainly aimed at the micro-car market below 100,000 yuan, and is also equipped with ADAS functions, with a high cost-effectiveness. Leapmotor Chairman Zhu Jiangming previously said that the good sales were mainly due to the tight control in the first half of the month before the epidemic broke out.

Leapmotor T03

However, the market below 100,000 yuan still has certain potential. Nezha V, which has a similar positioning to Leapmotor T03, has also achieved an insurance volume of 5,119 vehicles. It is also the only new car model with an insurance volume exceeding 5,000 vehicles.

Overall, new car companies have also been affected by the epidemic. NIO and Li Auto have close ties with the industrial chain around Shanghai, so they have been the most affected.

In April, only 4,213 Ideal vehicles were insured, a month-on-month decline of more than 60%. The insurance volume was halved compared with the previous month, and even compared with the same period last year, it was down 23.6%.

The insurance volume of NIO’s two current main-selling models, ES6 and EC6, has dropped by more than 50%. Although the ET7 has brought back some of the insurance volume, the overall month-on-month decline still reached 45.9%.

NIO ET7

The insurance volume of Xpeng Motors' best-selling model P7 also declined significantly, down 60.4% month-on-month, and the overall insurance volume fell 42.5% month-on-month. However, compared with the same period last year, Xpeng Motors still grew by 78.5%.

Overall, NIO, Xiaopeng and Li Auto were more significantly affected by the epidemic, while Nezha and Leapmotor were not affected that much. With their advantages in the market below RMB 100,000, their insurance data also improved significantly. However, if this continues for a long time, these brands will be tied to the low-end market. How to open up the high-end market is still a question that these car companies need to think about.

05 .

BYD leads Geely and Great Wall in increasing share of hybrid vehicles

After looking at the new car manufacturers, let’s turn our attention back to the domestic car companies.

Among the top three domestic automakers, BYD was the first to start electrification, and its product line is the most extensive among the three.

Statistics on the insurance volume of the top three domestic pure electric vehicles in April

In April, BYD registered 46,113 pure electric vehicles, making it the automaker with the highest number of pure electric vehicles insured in China. However, the insurance data of Geely and Great Wall's pure electric vehicles are not outstanding, and even the combined insurance data of the two is not as high as BYD's.

BYD is also a company that was less affected by the epidemic. The insurance volume of its pure electric vehicles only decreased by 18.9% month-on-month, while the month-on-month decreases for Geely and Great Wall were 50.3% and 68% respectively.

In April's "no decline is a win" environment, BYD's performance is obviously better.

It is worth noting that BYD's pure electric vehicles have been insured for 46,113 units, while the overall insurance volume is 88,941 units, which also means that BYD's hybrid models have been insured for more than 40,000 units. The DMi hybrid system is becoming BYD's new sales growth engine.

Although Geely's hybrid models account for about half of the insurance volume, its overall market size is obviously not comparable to BYD. In comparison, Great Wall's hybrid models account for a very small proportion.

From this point of view, among the top three independent domestic brands, BYD has already taken an absolute leading advantage in the transformation to new energy. Although Geely has taken many detours in electrification, it is currently moving in the right direction. However, Great Wall Motors has encountered certain difficulties and needs to come up with measures to break the deadlock.

06 .

Dongfeng Changan accelerates electrification transformation, FAW gradually falls behind

In addition to BYD, Geely and Great Wall, FAW, Changan and Dongfeng have also been actively transforming to electrification in recent years.

Statistics on the number of FAW Dongfeng Changan pure electric vehicles insured in April

Judging from the insurance volume data in April, Dongfeng performed the best, with 8,660 units insured. Although it fell by 23.7% month-on-month, it increased by 31.1% year-on-year.

Changan performed second, with 6,424 new cars registered, but this was a 37.1% drop compared to the previous month, making it the automaker with the most significant month-on-month decline among the three. On the other hand, Changan was also the automaker with the most significant year-on-year increase.

From this point of view, relying on the strategy of micro-cars, Changan Automobile has found a suitable path for electrification transformation.

However, FAW's performance was not very good, with only 1,458 pure electric vehicles completing insurance registration this month.

Changchun, where FAW's headquarters is located, was affected by the epidemic in April, but FAW's month-on-month decline was only 9.6%, and it increased by 10.6% compared with last year. This also shows that even without the impact of the epidemic, FAW's electrification transformation was not successful, and the overall sales volume was still significantly lower than that of the other two.

At present, Changan and Dongfeng have both found their own pure electric transformation paths. Changan has occupied the market with mini cars while stepping up the development of high-end pure electric vehicles, while Dongfeng is actively promoting the electrification of various sub-brands, and the construction of the high-end brand Lantu is also booming.

FAW currently has no obvious measures for its electrification transformation. If FAW fails to come up with effective measures, it may fall behind in the competition with Changan and Dongfeng.

07 .

Overseas brands continue to lose sales and are outperformed by domestically produced cars

After looking at domestic brands, let’s take a look at the insurance volume of overseas brand pure electric vehicles in China.

Judging from the insurance data alone, overseas brands have clearly not yet found a suitable path for electrification transformation.

Statistics on the insurance volume of pure electric vehicles of overseas automakers in April

Among many foreign brands, although both Volkswagen Group China and Volkswagen Group China are in areas affected by the epidemic, Volkswagen is still the best performing car company thanks to its ID. series of models, with a total of more than 5,000 pure electric models registered for insurance.

Although it fell by 53.5% month-on-month, General Motors still achieved 1,438 insurance registrations thanks to its Buick and Chevrolet models, and achieved monthly sales of over 1,000.

Apart from Volkswagen and GM, no other joint venture automakers had more than 1,000 pure electric vehicles insured. Among them, BMW's month-on-month decline reached 69.4%, the most obvious decline among all overseas automakers.

Mercedes-Benz and Audi continued their previous downward trend, with significant declines both year-on-year and month-on-month.

Overall, the results of overseas automakers' electrification transformation are not very obvious. The models currently on sale do not have a prominent advantage in the competition with domestic cars, resulting in poor sales.

For these car companies, if they want to continue to get a share of the Chinese market, they need to make more efforts to adapt to the domestic new energy vehicle market.

08 .

Conclusion: The new energy vehicle market is gradually stabilizing

Although sales in April declined significantly due to external factors, we can still see some interesting phenomena.

First of all, the sales of new energy vehicles in April were still very impressive . Data from the China Passenger Car Association showed that domestic passenger car sales reached 1.043 million units in April, a year-on-year decrease of 35.5% and a month-on-month decrease of 34.0%, both a month-on-month decrease and a year-on-year decrease; while sales of new energy vehicles were 282,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 78.5% and a month-on-month decrease of 36.5%, and are still on an overall growth trend.

Secondly, the proportion of hybrid models is increasing rapidly . Taking BYD's insurance volume data as an example, the proportion of pure electric vehicles and hybrid models is almost the same. Currently, BYD, Geely, Great Wall, GAC and other automakers are all focusing on hybrid vehicles, and this market will continue to grow.

Then, domestic traditional car companies are gradually widening the gap in electrification transformation . Although the pace of electrification transformation of various car companies is roughly the same, after several years of development, the gap has widened. If the backward car companies cannot transform quickly, they may fade out of consumers' sight in the future.

Finally, the electrification process of overseas car companies has been hindered . In the domestic new energy vehicle market, the models of joint venture car companies are not competitive. Currently, these car companies are considering introducing their own trump card pure electric vehicles into the country, but it is hard to say what results they can achieve.

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