A few years ago, the domestic joint venture small car market is really lively, especially the polo, Fit and other small hatchbacks, but also in the incredible sales of people to challenge people's perception of automotive products, because everyone also knows that similar polo, Fit such models, the overall configuration is relatively low, but the sales of these models are indeed very good, monthly sales of more than 10,000 is a common thing. For example, POLO, the annual sales of this car in 2018 was 138,000 units, with an average monthly sales of more than 10,000 units; in 2019, the annual sales volume was 73,000 units, with a single month sales of 6,083 units; the annual sales volume of 45,000 units in 2020 was 3,750 units; and the annual sales volume of 2021 was 39,500 units, with an average monthly sales of 3,291 units. It is an indisputable fact that Polo's sales have declined in the last four years in a visible state.
Of course, as one of the competitors, the situation of Fit is actually not too bad, in 2019, Fit's annual sales of 110,000 vehicles, but in 2021 sales have become 96,000 vehicles, and similar to Chevrolet Sail and other joint venture brand small cars, sales are also declining. In fact, as these prices go up and the sales of relatively small models are getting smaller and smaller, it is bound to make people wonder who has taken away the sales of these joint venture small cars?
In fact, in the past few years, there has always been a theory in the industry, that is, the consumer upgrade of domestic cars, that is, more and more people choose models with higher and higher prices due to rising income, and the level is getting higher and higher, so small-size, low-price models such as joint venture small SUVs and independent brand compact SUVs will be less and less consumers will choose them, and consumers will choose joint venture compact cars and independent brand compact SUVs. But we still can't agree with this point of view, in fact, domestic automobile consumption has not been much improved, because we see that Wuling Hongguang MINI EV such a cheap electric vehicle of 20,000 or 30,000 yuan, monthly sales can exceed 50,000 vehicles, which shows that there are still a lot of consumer car purchase budget is not very high, Fit, POLO such models, in fact, the price is still relatively high, so consumption upgrades are not the core reason for the sales of these models are getting less and less.
In our view, the sales of joint venture brand small cars are getting smaller and smaller, which may have a lot to do with the more diversified entire automobile market, specifically, it is because there are more independent brand compact cars and models, so that people can see models below 100,000 yuan, not necessarily fit, POLO This configuration is extremely rudimentary. We see that the entry-level model of Fit is priced at 81,800 yuan, but the entry-level model does not even have an in-car speaker, let alone any central control screen, front and rear radar; polo is actually similar, as a small car product with a starting price of up to 89,900 yuan, 89,900-109,900 yuan of three models, no reversing radar, no reversing image, front and rear fabric seats, the whole series of manual air conditioning, the configuration can be said to be quite shabby.
However, we have seen that in the past two years, the configuration, design and other aspects of many models of independent brands below 100,000 have become more and more excellent, and they have been more and more recognized by the market and consumers. Because in contrast, people will be more disappointed in these joint venture small cars, and we also have to say that now people's superstition of joint venture brands is showing an exponential downward trend, then these existences are very unfavorable for joint venture small cars.
Of course, in our view, there is a special situation, that is, these joint venture small cars have "flat replacement" products, that is, domestic electric vehicle products. From the overall point of view, many car owners who buy joint venture small cars are mostly short-distance commuting to work, picking up and dropping off children to and from school, etc. Fuel saving and easy driving are necessary attributes. But now the situation has completely changed, many domestic electric vehicle products can not only fully meet the car use scenarios such as short-distance transportation, picking up and dropping off children to and from school, but also can save more power, the key is that the intelligent configuration of some electric vehicles will be higher. For example, the BYD dolphin priced at 968-12.48 million yuan and the POLO of 899-12.39 million yuan may be almost complete in other aspects in addition to running long distances, but think about it, if you choose one of these two cars as a short distance, pick up children to and from school, is running long distance a measure? Not! So in fact, after the emergence of many low-priced electric vehicle products, the impact on the joint venture small car is still relatively obvious.
We can see that with more and more competitors, especially the products of independent brands below 100,000 yuan and the domestic electric vehicle products of low and medium-priced prices, they have strongly impacted the market position of the joint venture small cars and played an alternative role. It can be said that in the future, as people's superstitions about the "brand" level of joint venture brands become weaker and weaker, these joint venture small car products with low configuration and relatively high prices will only become narrower and narrower.