In January 2022, the new energy vehicle market continued to maintain a high-speed growth trend, according to the data of the Association of Passenger Vehicles, the wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 412,000 units in January, an increase of 141.4% year-on-year, down 18.5% month-on-month, and the month-on-month decline was consistent with the characteristics of January 2021. Retail sales of new energy passenger cars reached 347,000 units in January, up 132.0% year-on-year and down 27.0% month-on-month, in line with the 25% decline in January 2021.
For the outstanding performance of the new energy vehicle market in January, the Association believes that it is mainly because the decline of the new energy vehicle subsidy policy in 2022 has a small impact on the entire market and some new energy vehicle companies will transfer the undelivered order resources in 2021 to the first quarter of this year. Judging from the sales performance of the beginning year, new energy vehicles are still the "propeller" of the development of the automobile industry. Therefore, the China Automobile Association is also optimistically predicting that China's new energy vehicles will achieve sales of 5 million units in 2022, maintaining rapid growth.
The sales of new energy vehicles continue to rise, and from the analysis point of view, there are also many factors behind this. First of all, the continuous development of new energy vehicles in China for many years, has gradually shifted from the previous policy subsidies driven to market-driven, that is to say, consumers' acceptance of new energy vehicles is getting higher and higher; secondly, the traditional car companies attach significantly more importance to new energy, and the proportion of new energy models in the product matrix is also continuously improving; third, thanks to the first-mover advantage and technology accumulation, independent brands have achieved good results in product segmentation and brand upwards, and at the same time, After years of development, the new car-making forces have also begun to concentrate on the volume; fourth, the sales volume of overseas markets has also become an important growth point for domestic new energy vehicles to increase sales, and with the continuous expansion of overseas markets, the export volume of products has also shown a rising tide.
It can be said that new energy vehicles have entered the "fast lane" of industry development, and independent innovation technology has also attracted more consumers to choose new energy vehicles. It can also be seen from the increasing market penetration rate that it has achieved the market effect of partially replacing fuel vehicles. This year, the biggest test for new energy vehicles is that after the policy subsidies are all withdrawn, the market will be more fierce, and whether the industry can maintain the same high growth as last year.
From the sales of new energy vehicles in January, we also found that the penetration rate of China's own brand new energy passenger cars continued to lead, reaching 32.0% in January 2022, far higher than the overall level of the market. From the perspective of car companies, the market has shown a multi-point blossoming situation, with a total of 7 traditional independent brand car companies achieving monthly sales of more than 10,000 in January, including BYD, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Chery, Geely, GAC Aeon, SAIC Passenger Cars, and Great Wall Euler.
Among these brands, BYD, Chery and Geely have a particularly significant year-on-year increase, with an increase of more than 190%. Among them, BYD relies on technology such as blade batteries, e-platform 3.0 and DM-i super hybrid to show a momentum of development in the pure electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid market segments. Moreover, the addition of the Marine Network series of products has enriched the product camp of BYD New Energy, and this year's brand will bring more new cars, which is believed to fuel the sales growth this year. Chery New Energy Vehicle achieved substantial growth in January, mainly due to the strong performance of Small Ant and QQ Ice Cream positioned in the A00-level pure electric vehicle segment. Similarly, Geely's ability to achieve high-speed growth is inseparable from the joint efforts of geely, geometry, Lynk & Co, Extreme Krypton and Ruilan brands.
In addition to traditional independent brands, the new domestic car-making forces also achieved very good results last month. Among them, Xiaopeng Automobile, Ideal Automobile and Nezha Automobile won the monthly sales of more than 10,000 in January, ranking first, second and third respectively in the January sales list of new car-making forces.
Although there is a certain gap between mainstream joint venture brands and independent brands in terms of sales performance, we also see that in recent years, they have also accelerated the pace of electrification transformation. Among them, the speed of the "elephant turning" of the north and south Volkswagen can be described as quite fast, respectively, in the Chinese new energy vehicle market launched 3 models based on the MEB platform to build the ID. series of pure electric vehicles, in the market has also won a lot of share, becoming the mainstay of new energy models in the joint venture brand. In addition, toyota, Honda, general motors and Ford and other automotive groups have also released a clear new energy vehicle strategy in 2021.
Write at the end:
Judging from the overall market performance of new energy vehicles in January, the industry is still developing in the direction we expect. However, rationally looking at the "opening red" in January, car companies should also recognize that the rise in raw material prices, chip shortages have still not been effectively "cured", and the intensification of policy subsidies are all factors that determine the changes in the new energy vehicle market this year. How China's new energy market will develop in 2022, we can only pay attention to it patiently.