A few days ago, the latest automobile customs import data released by the China Automobile Dealers Association Import Working Committee showed that from January to July this year, the mainland imported a total of 402,000 cars, a year-on-year decrease of 2.5%, and the import amount reached 163.19 billion yuan.
The China Automobile Dealers Association believes that after four consecutive years of decline in automobile imports, "destocking" is still the main task at present, and the overall automobile import market will remain at a low level in the coming period.
"Destocking" is the top priority for imported cars
In recent years, the number of imported cars has continued to decline, from 1.423 million units in 2014 to 799,000 units in 2023. The industry generally believes that with the acceleration of the transformation and upgrading of the automobile market, traditional imported cars have been difficult to meet the increasing demand of consumers.
He Suojia, a staff member of the CRRC Market Research Institute of China Vehicle Import and Export Co., Ltd., told the reporter of China Consumer Daily:
In the past two years, the terminal demand for imported vehicles has remained low and stable, and due to the impact of factors such as the market environment and chip prices, the imported automobile market has declined from 2020 to 2022, with a cumulative sales of 769,000 units in 2023, basically the same as the same period last year. In the first seven months of this year, the cumulative sales of imported cars were only 379193, a year-on-year decline of 10.8%.
"From the perspective of monthly sales trends, this is the fifth consecutive month that the sales of imported cars have hovered at a low level of 50,000 units, and the sixth consecutive month of year-on-year decline."
According to the current market development rate, this year's imported car sales will most likely hit a new low since 2012. Specifically, except for the year-on-year increase in imported automobile sales in January, the rest of the months showed negative growth, and the decline was generally large. Among them, from May to July, the sales of imported automobiles fell by 14.6%, 16.8% and 9.08% year-on-year respectively.
Like the development law of the new car market, the decline in sales in the imported automobile market will directly lead to the high inventory data of the imported automobile industry. The survey found that 2024 will continue the trend of last year and be in a destocking cycle. In July, the sales volume of imported vehicles fell further, and the depth of inventory rose to a record high of 6.9 months. It is understood that inventory depth is usually used to measure the adequacy of inventory, which indicates that the inventory of a business or store can meet the sales demand for a period of time in the future, such as a month. This means that if the monthly sales volume remains the same, then the existing inventory can sustain sales for 6.9 months. Because of this, the China Automobile Dealers Association recently introduced the development of the imported automobile market, saying that "destocking" is the top priority for imported automobiles.
Only two brands in the top 10 achieved positive growth
From 2015 to 2024, the unit price of imported automobiles has increased from 252,100 yuan to 405,900 yuan. According to customs statistics, after the average customs declaration price of imported automobiles in March was lower than the average customs declaration price in 2023 for the first time, the downward trend of customs declaration unit price continued to June, and the customs declaration unit price rebounded in July.
In terms of brand structure, the imported automobile market continued its overall downward trend in July. From January to July, the sales of ultra-luxury cars fell by 32.8%, the sales of non-luxury cars fell by 17.3%, and the sales of luxury cars fell by 9.86%. In terms of the proportion of sales, luxury cars are still the main force of sales, accounting for 90.72% of the cumulative sales from January to July.
From January to July this year, only two of the top ten brands (Lexus and Toyota) achieved positive growth, of which Toyota sold a total of 20,766 vehicles from January to July, the largest increase of 30.2%. The price war in the domestic auto market has also affected the imported car market, such as Porsche, which saw sales fall by 37% from the beginning of this year to July, compared to the same period last year. At the same time, we saw the largest decline in sales from January to July, Volkswagen, which fell by 55.1% year-on-year.
He Suojia said:
Since the beginning of this year, Porsche's market sales have fallen by 37% year-on-year, and Porsche, which is a pure import label, was once quite popular in the Chinese market, and Porsche's sales data fell sharply at the beginning of this year, indicating that some consumer groups pursuing high quality in mainland China tend to be rational in spending on luxury purchases.
The competitiveness of imported new energy vehicles has declined
Affected by the decline in overall imported car sales, from January to July this year, the sales of the three major models all declined to varying degrees, with sedans down 7.23% year-on-year and SUVs down 14.45% year-on-year; MPVs fell 1.87% year-on-year. Among the niche sedans, the coupe performed relatively well, with a year-on-year increase of 3.21%.
In this context, the proportion of the 1.5-2.0L displacement range rose to 41.3%, an increase of 1.5 percentage points compared with 2023, and continued to maintain the largest displacement range, the 2.5-3.0L displacement range accounted for 27.5%, a decrease of 1.1 percentage points compared with the same period in 2023, and the second largest displacement range, and the 2.0-2.5L range accounted for 22.1%, ranking third.
▲Trend change chart of imported new energy vehicles. Profile picture
As the world's largest new car market and the largest new energy vehicle market, the domestic market with a relatively complete industrial chain has become the forefront of the development of the new energy vehicle market, which will also lead to a decline in the competitiveness of imported new energy vehicle products. According to the data, in the first seven months of this year, 15,359 imported new energy vehicles were sold, a year-on-year decrease of 39.7%. Among them, pure electric vehicles decreased by 32.5%; Plug-in hybrid models are down 48% year-on-year.
Lang Xuehong, deputy secretary-general of the China Automobile Dealers Association, told the "China Consumer Daily" reporter that the domestic new energy vehicle sales market is still in an obvious upward channel, and the comparison of domestic and imported new energy vehicle market data reflects the strong rise of the independent brand new energy luxury car production and sales market, which has a strong substitution effect on the new energy imported car market, and the purchase preferences of end customers are also changing.
Produced by the New Media Editorial Department of China Consumer Daily
Source: China Consumer News · China Consumer Network
Reporter/Wu Bofeng
Editor/Pei Ying
Producer/He Yongpeng, Ren Zhenyu
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