Record high! 392,000 automobiles exported in July

On August 10, the latest data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) showed that in July this year, the domestic automobile production and sales were completed 2.401 million and 2.387 million respectively, down 6.2% and 9% from the previous year, and 2.2% and 1.4% year-on-year; from January to July, the domestic automobile production and sales were completed 15.650 million and 15.626 million respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 7.4% and 7.9%, and the cumulative production and sales growth rate fell 1.9 percentage points from January to June.

"In July, affected by the high base of the same period last year, superimposed on the traditional off-season of the automobile market, the pace of domestic automobile production and sales slowed down, and the overall market performance was relatively flat, with a decline in both ringgit and year-on-year. Among them, passenger car production and sales ring, year-on-year double drop, commercial vehicle production and sales due to last year's low base year-on-year showed double-digit growth, new energy vehicles and auto exports continued the good development trend." Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), analyzed.

Data show that in July, China's auto exports 392,000 vehicles, a record high, up 2.7% over the previous month, up 35.1% year-on-year. 2,533,000 vehicles were exported from January to July, up 67.9% year-on-year. Among them, the growth rate of new-energy vehicle exports exceeded that of traditional fuel vehicles, and in the first seven months, new-energy vehicle exports increased by more than 1.5 times.

Chinese brand passenger car share increased

Specifically, in July, the domestic passenger car production and sales were completed 2.115 million and 2.1 million units, down 4.7% and 7.4%, respectively, compared with the year-on-year decline of 4.3% and 3.4%.1~July, the domestic production and sales of passenger cars were completed 13,397,000 units and 13,368,000 units, respectively, an increase of 6% and 6.7% year-on-year.

Chen Shihua said that July is the traditional off-season for the auto market, with relatively weaker demand and a slower pace of production and sales. At the same time, the recent extreme rainstorms in many places have also had a certain impact on consumers buying cars in stores. In addition, the passenger car market showed high growth in the same period last year, driven by the policy of promoting consumption, and passenger car sales fell both sequentially and year-on-year this month.

Although the overall base of domestic passenger cars declined in July, the market share of Chinese brand passenger cars still showed rapid growth, completing 1.211 million units, up 11.4% year-on-year, with a market share of 57.2%, up 7.6 percentage points. From the cumulative sales of the previous seven months, Chinese brand passenger cars sold a total of 7.187 million units, a year-on-year increase of 20.4%, with a market share of 53.8%, up 6.1 percentage points. In contrast, among the major foreign brands, compared with the previous month, the sales of the five major brands were all down to varying degrees. Compared with the same period of the previous year, except for a small increase in sales of U.S. brands, the sales of the other four major brands (German, Japanese, Korean, and others) all showed double-digit declines.

It is worth noting that in July, sales of traditional fuel passenger cars continued to dip, with domestic sales of 1.126 million units, 292,000 fewer than in the same period of the previous year, a drop of 10.9% from a year earlier and 20.6% year-on-year. However, from January to July, traditional energy passenger cars, 80,000 ~ 100,000 yuan and 350,000 yuan price range of models above the year-on-year growth is still positive, of which 500,000 yuan or more models rose the most, 22.3%. However, the current sales of traditional energy passenger cars are still mainly concentrated in the price range of 100,000 ~ 150,000 yuan, the price range of models from January to July cumulative sales of 3,089,000 units, a year-on-year decline of 5.8%.

Contrary to passenger cars, domestic commercial vehicle production and sales in July realized positive growth year-on-year, respectively completed 286,000 units and 287,000 units, an increase of 17% and 16.8% year-on-year, a drop of 16.4% and 19% respectively. In the main varieties of commercial vehicles, compared with the previous month, buses, trucks, production and sales were in double-digit decline; compared with the same period last year, buses, trucks, production and sales were significantly increased, of which the growth rate of bus production and sales is higher than trucks.

From January to July, domestic commercial vehicle production and sales were completed at 2.253 million units and 2.258 million units respectively, with year-on-year growth of 16.9% and 15.9% respectively. In the main varieties of commercial vehicles, compared with the same period of the previous year, buses, trucks, production and sales were double-digit growth, in which the bus production and sales growth was more significant.

Xie Guoping, deputy director of the Information Technology and Industrial Development Department of the State Information Center and head of the commercial vehicle market research group, believes that from the cyclical characteristics, the commercial vehicle market in 2023 is still in the pre-policy overdraft digestion period, and it is expected that this year's annual sales volume will be in the range of 3.8 million to 4 million units.