Recently, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (hereinafter referred to as "CAAM") released the March automobile production and sales data. Due to the multi-point sporadic trend of the domestic epidemic, the difficulties of market players have increased significantly, the smooth flow of the economic cycle has been constrained, and the downward pressure has further expanded.
In March this year, production and sales in the domestic auto market reached 2.241 million units and 2.234 million units, down 9.1% and 11.7% year-on-year, respectively. In the first quarter of this year, domestic automobile production and sales reached 6.484 million units and 6.509 million units, respectively, up 2.0% and 0.2% year-on-year, respectively.
Overall, production and sales in the first quarter of this year increased slightly year-on-year, but the growth rate was still significantly lower than that in the same period in 2021. Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Automobile Association, analyzed that the complexity and uncertainty of the domestic and foreign environments have intensified, and some have exceeded expectations.
From the perspective of automobile supply, the shortage of chip supply at this stage has not been significantly alleviated, and the CFO of Volkswagen Group recently said that the impact of semiconductor chip shortage will continue until 2024. At the same time, the price of raw materials for power batteries has risen sharply, further increasing the product manufacturing costs of car companies, and the production and operation activities have been adversely affected, and the overall situation of the industry is less than expected.
At the same time, the frequent recurrence of the domestic epidemic has also affected the normal operation of the supply chain of the automotive industry. In particular, Jilin and Shanghai, which occupy an important production share of domestic automobiles, have been affected by the spread of the epidemic, and the production and logistics of related parts have come to a standstill. Faw Group, SAIC Motor and other mainstream car companies are located in the above areas, so the production situation has also been seriously affected. In addition, Tesla, Weilai and other new forces have also stopped work and production, especially the epidemic in Shanghai is still not optimistic, and it is predicted that the next production and sales will be affected and affected.
From the perspective of automobile consumption, the consumption momentum is obviously insufficient, affected by the supply side, car companies have raised the price of new energy products to alleviate the price pressure brought about by the surge in costs, and consumers' demand for car purchases has been suppressed to varying degrees. Compared with the same period, the industry's consumption power showed a certain decline.
In addition, production and sales of new energy vehicles in March reached 465,000 units and 484,000 units, respectively, up about 114% year-on-year, successfully outperforming the market. Among them, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles reached 376,000 units and 396,000 units, respectively, and the production and sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles reached 89,000 units and 88,000 units, respectively. From January to March this year, production and sales of new energy vehicles totaled 1.293 million units and 1.257 million units, respectively, up about 140% year-on-year.
Comprehensive travel pressure brought about by the rise in oil prices, new energy vehicles have entered a stage of rapid growth, and the industry demand is relatively strong. In the context of frequent epidemics, the demand for private cars is tilting towards new energy vehicles. Recently, BYD announced that it will officially stop the production of fuel vehicles from March, which has also brought new impetus to the development of the industry. In the future, there will be new growth points in the pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle business.
Overall, the development of the automotive industry is still facing multiple pressures such as demand compression, supply chain crisis, and weak expectations, and the China Automobile Association has also made suggestions for this, hoping that relevant policies and measures will be refined, and enterprises should also actively respond, and the development trend of ensuring supply and production and steady growth still requires the joint efforts of all parties.