Volkswagen Couplets/Honda No. 2: China's auto sales charts shuffle

The self-owned brands and Japanese cars were stronger, and the polarization of the auto market was intensifying, resulting in a significant change in seat occupancy.

In 2017, the auto market in China will be the “shrinking year”, and sales volume will be the observation dimension. Autonomous automakers, Japanese automakers, and sedan models may all encounter a throne handover this year.

At the level of the brand between the car prices and models, its sales rankings were also disrupted order, both Honda, Geely, Chuan-chi, such as the proud, but also the modern, Beiqi and other losers. After the “selective growth” became the main theme of the auto market, the Matthew effect became more pronounced.

Is the German system's overall performance in China good or bad? Can the Volkswagen Champion position sit still? What are the current trends in the number of major brand brands that have become so fierce today?

From the list provided by LMC Automotive, those figures that looked like one after another, in the eyes of marketers, have played a song and knowingly elegant effect.

Volkswagen Honda, seawater flame

Turning over the sales volume of the TOP20 passenger car brand in the Chinese market for the first 7 months of LMC Automotive, the most eye-catching winners were Volkswagen and Honda.

According to the classification of foreign automobile enterprises, General Motors may also drive Volkswagen Group to the throne of its sales champion in China; SAIC GM also has the probability of defeating North and South China Volkswagen according to the statistics of joint-venture cars; however, according to a single brand, Volkswagen leads China. Status has already written a well-known myth:

The only single-month sales so far can break the 200,000/3 million mark that could break through 200,000 units/year;

The only brand with a 10% market share in passenger cars so far;

Since LMC Automotive has ranked China's sales list according to the Multilateral Union and China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, it has never been a brand next to the championship...

However, Volkswagen’s sales performance in the Chinese market in the past two years does not allow Mullen or Heitzman to be satisfied. Sales in China have been reversing in many months since 2014, and even 2015 sales have seen a rare year-on-year decline. Only from the first seven months of sales, the public is really recovering.

Due to various factors such as the rise of self-owned brands taking away the entry-level A-class car share, Volkswagen's 2017 start-up in China is unfavorable, and cumulative sales in the first four months are still barely flat. However, with the launch of a number of SUVs, such as Wayang and Tiguan L, and sales volume climbing, Volkswagen finally began a real recovery in May. By July, the domestic sales volume of Volkswagen brand has returned to a level of 7% year-on-year, which is slightly better than that of the passenger car market (up 5.7% year-on-year from the CUP data). The sales volume in the first seven months increased by 3% year-on-year. 1,710,748 vehicles, this year, more than 3 million in the Volkswagen brand and more than 4 million in the Volkswagen Group can be regarded as stagnant.

As for Honda's picking of silver, starting with sales last year defeated Toyota, it will rely on SUV and sedan double force, all the way to make a triumph. It is undeniable that Honda, which was once undervalued in China, has now achieved its rightful place with its strong product strength and its deep-rooted image of "craftsmanship." In April 2017, Honda won the first runner-up car brand sales in the Chinese market, and it secured the second spot in July with cumulative sales of 777,398 units.

In addition to the fabulous mass brand, the runner-up position of the Chinese auto market has always been the “change of the king of the city”. In March of this year, it was still the second longest, but with the opening of the inventory adjustment in April, Chang’an could not even maintain its status as an autonomous champion; if the lens is further extended, it will return to the whole year of 2016. Belonging to Buick, Angkor and Ying Lang played a decisive role; in 2012, when the second runner-up had kept this position for a long time, Honda could only be ranked 7th.

Will the two brands of Volkswagen Honda continue to sit still in their current position?

For a long time, Volkswagen and Honda have attracted attention as the most representative (at least one) of the German and Japanese systems. Now their situation and situation, there are diametrically opposite long and short boards, just like the contrast between seawater and flame.

The Volkswagen Group has more than 300 models worldwide, and it can be called the most extensive and rich product line, among which the Volkswagen brand takes more than half. Therefore, there is still a considerable amount of cards that can be sold to the Chinese market. The T-Roc that has just been released will become FAW-Volkswagen's first domestically produced Volkswagen brand SUV; Wayang is expected to derive a five seater/coupe; golf is also In the near future will be renewed to the eighth generation ... ... However, the public's problem is that the foundation of the A-Class sedan is slowly being eroded, and this is precisely the mass of the mass reliance on the plate. In July, Geely's retail sales defeated Santana, declaring that entry-level A-class cars are no longer the world's largest.

Compared with the public, Honda is more and more solid foundation - Ten generations Civic with excellent product strength and appearance, won a good reputation, even if the failure of burning oil does not affect the overall image; product layout is becoming more and more comprehensive, B-level SUV segmentation market has gained a lot... but ten generations of Civics, new CR-Vs, Binzhi/XR-Vs have all been sacrificed. In addition to the nine-generation Accord that was just released, how many new cards will Honda still have? Chinese market?

In the process of continuously exploring new market segments and laying the foundation, Honda may encounter a lack of sufficient capacity to launch new models; from weak to recovery, the public will face the challenge of shaking the foundation of the entry vehicle segment. Whoever can make use of his strengths and solve shortcomings will determine the future of gold and silver in the Chinese market.

Independent joint ventures, differentiation becomes more apparent

If you look at this passenger car brand sales rankings, a major feature is that there is a wide range of increase and decrease. Among the top 20, Geely, the largest increaser in sales from January to July, soared by 89% year-on-year to 622,303; Chuanyuan, Mercedes-Benz, Baojun, Honda, and BMW all exceeded 20% growth. The largest drop of modern-day diving was 41%. Beiqi, Wuling, and Ford all had double-digit declines. There was also a serious downslide due to the drop of the top 20 Kia.

If we look back at how these brands are performing this year, it is not difficult to find out who launches a good car with sincerity and supplements it with the power of the relevant channels to sell hot. In turn, it is not sensible to use the old car Lapi to claim that the sale of new cars and cousins ​​squeezes surplus value. Although the reason is very simple, but if it is linked to the R & D of technological strength, financial strength and corporate culture and other multiple factors, the performance of different companies, resulting in the current situation of increased differentiation, the strong strong and strong, the weak fall.

According to the division, the performance of self-owned brands and Japanese cars is relatively strong.

On this list, in the top 20 passenger car sales rankings, China’s own brands accounted for 9 seats, nearly half; 4 German companies; 3 Japanese companies; 1 Korean, Kia fell to 20 outside. From 2012, the author started to pay attention to the LMC Chinese auto market brand sales charts. In many years, only two brands, Haval and Changan, can maintain their top 20 rankings. If they can win 5 seats, they will be invigorating. Succeeded in grasping the opportunities given by the boom of SUVs and allowing the independent brands to rise rapidly.

From the share of retail sales in each segment of the FTA, the SUV has occupied 41% of the entire narrow passenger car market. The proportion of self-owned brands occupying SUV sales climbed from 36% in 2011 to 2016. 58%, even though there have been a large number of cheap, low-quality autonomous SUVs, this year, the share is still floating between 55% and 60%.

Among the self-owned brands, performance is good and underachievers can be described as indiscriminate. Taking the sales ranking of the first seven months of the year compared to the 2016 annual sales ranking, the fastest increase of 11 places, this is Geely, own brand; the most obvious drop of 6 drops, this is Beiqi (Baixing Baobao, Beiqi) Such as Weiwang, Dongfeng is similar, Fengshen popular and so on are all together), is also an independent brand.

The performance of Japanese cars can further prove the trend of “polarization” in the Chinese market. A few years ago the Japanese department had 4 to 5 seats in the top 20 brands. However, due to Mazda's growth rate was less than its own, Suzuki was plunged due to the lack of new cars. Today, only the Japanese top three are able to continue ranking in the top 20, But their rankings have risen - truly interpreting what is the meaning of the "Japan's top three."

It is just because many brands have been reshuffled by the market because of their own strengths and weaknesses. We can only see that the change of seats and the replacement of ranks on the list are so astonishing. In contrast, the sales volume of light commercial vehicle brands has been relatively stable. In the first seven months of this year, cumulative sales, and the top 10 sales in 2016, the first to seventh positions have remained unchanged. This is determined by the respective characteristics of the passenger and commercial vehicle markets.

As the hands of the market continue to advance in the name of the Matthew effect, car companies and brands are bound to experience more ups and downs in the Big Wave. The secret is implied in the cruelty, and the meaning is contained in the boring. The auto market has an infinite meaning. Those who are not meditation can not comprehend it, and indeed those who are not sincere are unable to succeed.