fighting for the last half of the gasoline car market, the competitiveness of auto companies' products has become the focus
2024-09-03
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the passenger car market information joint branch of the china automobile dealers association jointly released the "product competitiveness index". the data showed that with january 2019 as the base period, the overall market product competitiveness index in july 2024 was 91.2, down 0.3 points from the previous month. since the beginning of this year, fuel vehicles have been retreating step by step. compared with the new energy market that has achieved a penetration rate of more than 50%, how much competitiveness the fuel vehicle market still has has aroused concern.
traditional automakers continue to innovate fuel products
it is worth noting that from january to july, the retail sales of conventional fuel vehicles were 6.57 million, a year-on-year decrease of 15%. in july, the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles was 51.1%. after august, this comparison relationship is expected to be further strengthened. whether fuel vehicles can still obtain more than half of the market share has become the key to affecting the confidence of traditional automobile companies.
in the economy car market, the sales represented by gac honda, gac toyota, and saic gm are also more prominent in fuel vehicles. for rational consumers, the mature technology, convenient energy replenishment, stable endurance performance, and better driving quality of fuel vehicles are also rigid demands in the current domestic market. in addition, the energy-saving vehicles of these companies have been very perfect, so that some users who have tried new energy in previous years have chosen to return to fuel vehicles in the process of replacing new cars. a recently launched suv by saic volkswagen emphasizes its fuel-saving and durable characteristics. this has almost become the common slogan of all oil vehicle companies. in terms of sales, accord still maintains innovation and renewal efforts together with camry, magotan, passat, etc., and has become a very rare top ten mid-size car. it can be said that it is on par with new energy vehicles.
in the luxury market, companies represented by bmw and audi are still focusing on fuel vehicles. recently, bmw launched the new m5, x3 long wheelbase version, m2 coupe and new bmw m3, and continued to upgrade the power. among them, in the digitalization of m, the emphasis is not on the intelligent experience but on the update of professional sports driving settings and auxiliary track driving functions. as a result, the number of m high-performance cars and performance models provided in china will reach 23, covering almost all market segments. as for saic audi, its a7l c+ class performance flagship also focuses on the luxury market, which is not sensitive to energy but pays special attention to sports control. the reason why these traditional models characterized by fuel vehicles are still being updated and strengthened is to stabilize their dominant position in the field of driving control.
at present, user reputation, market popularity, product evaluation, and price strength directly determine the production status and competitiveness of fuel vehicles. judging from sales and other data, fuel vehicles seem to face more severe tests. from the perspective of word of mouth, traditional japanese and german economy cars have a very good reputation, which is also their best endorsement. however, when it comes to market heat, whether it is the sports products of luxury companies or the economic products of mainstream companies, the heat has almost continued to decline, and it is even difficult for the market to recall. the only result of this is price competition. however, car companies represented by bmw and mercedes-benz are no longer willing to follow up on the price war, so whether the sales can rise again has become a big question.
market shrinkage requires breakthroughs in intelligence
from the figures, in july, the retail sales of narrow passenger cars were 1.72 million, down 2.8% year-on-year and 2.4% month-on-month, of which the retail sales of fuel vehicles were 841,000, down 25.4% year-on-year. however, the china passenger car association also remained optimistic. according to the analysis of the china passenger car association, in july and august, the new fuel vehicles that have been launched recently will usher in a further wave of upgrades and optimizations in smart cockpits and smart driving while maintaining the driving performance quality, and their competitiveness will be enhanced, and market attention and recognition will pick up.
in july, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles of domestic brands was 62.6%; the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in luxury cars was 37.2%; and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles of mainstream joint venture brands was only 8.1%. this means that if traditional luxury brands want to further increase their market share, they must continue to defend and counterattack at the threshold of new energy. brands such as bmw, mercedes-benz, and audi, in addition to emphasizing the driving control, safety, and luxury characteristics of their fuel vehicles, also need to further demonstrate their advantages in intelligence. even if it is not a fully electrified product, there is still a lot of room for discussion in intelligent driving.
overall, the new energy market sold 878,000 vehicles in july, with a penetration rate of 51.1%. the new energy penetration rate for the whole month exceeded the 50% mark for the first time. this means that traditional fuel vehicle products can only compete for the remaining 50% of the market. therefore, the manifestation of the competitiveness of this product becomes even more important.
the china passenger car association pointed out that the current complex and changing external environment has a great impact on consumer confidence. some consumers have weak consumer confidence, and the first-time purchase demand is far less than the replacement demand. however, the old-for-new exchange has become an important driving force for the growth of the auto market and has boosted the enthusiasm of the market for renewal. under this favorable policy, the continued persistence of fuel vehicles is also a positive response to the market with such rigid demand, and there is no need to be blindly pessimistic.
text and photos by reporter qi yaoqi
