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the auto market declined slightly in august this year (down 1% year-on-year), with domestic brands rising overall, but joint venture brands falling far more than the overall auto market.

the latest data from the china passenger car association shows that in august, domestic brands sold 1.2 million vehicles, up 21% year-on-year, accounting for 63% of the domestic market share; mainstream joint venture brands sold 480,000 vehicles, down 27% year-on-year, accounting for only 25% of the domestic market share. among them, the retail share of german brands was 16.6%, japanese brands was 12.6%, and american brands was 5.7%, all of which declined to varying degrees.

at present, competition in the new energy fuel vehicle market is fierce, and the share of fuel vehicles is shrinking. this is an important reason for the decline in sales of joint venture brands that mainly focus on fuel vehicles. in july this year, the market share of new energy vehicles exceeded that of fuel vehicles for the first time, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles further increased to 53.9% in august, an increase of 16.6 percentage points from the penetration rate of 37.3% in the same period last year. in domestic retail sales in august, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in independent brands was 75.9%; the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in luxury cars was 33.5%; and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in mainstream joint venture brands was only 8%.

among the top ten automakers in terms of retail sales in august, domestic brands occupied four seats, including byd, geely, chery and changan. among them, byd still ranked first, with a year-on-year growth of 57.1%, the largest increase in the list; geely ranked second, with a year-on-year growth of 7.7%; chery ranked fourth, with a year-on-year growth of 55.5%; changan automobile saw a year-on-year decline of 18.3%.

although the leading domestic automakers have developed well overall, they have also seen differentiation. great wall motors has fallen out of the top ten retail sales list for several consecutive months. data shows that in august this year, great wall motors sold 95,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decline of 17.2%. its sales have declined year-on-year for four consecutive months, and all its brands except the tank have declined.

in sharp contrast to domestic brands, except for saic-gm-wuling, the retail sales of the top ten joint venture automakers all declined. among them, gac toyota had the largest year-on-year decline, reaching 21.0%, followed by faw-volkswagen, which fell by 17.7% year-on-year; saic volkswagen, faw toyota and tesla china fell by 9.1%, 5.1% and 1.9% year-on-year respectively.

it is worth noting that in the past few years, saic volkswagen, faw-volkswagen and saic gm often monopolized the "top three in the auto market". however, this pattern has changed since 2022. in 2023, only faw-volkswagen among the top three joint ventures maintained the top three, while saic volkswagen and saic gm were not in the top five. today, saic gm has fallen out of the top ten. on the other hand, japanese cars, which have developed rapidly in the past few years, only occupy two seats in the top ten list.

in august this year, byd sold 380,000 vehicles, and the gap between it and joint venture automakers has widened. faw-volkswagen, which ranked third, had a retail volume of 128,000 vehicles, and was the only joint venture automaker with monthly sales of more than 100,000 vehicles. saic volkswagen, which ranked fifth, sold 100,000 vehicles.

among joint venture automakers, the reason why volkswagen group china and volkswagen group china are relatively ahead is that in addition to their existing brand and user base, the launch of new energy products has also contributed to a certain amount of sales. in august, volkswagen group china and volkswagen group china sold a total of 20,000 new energy vehicles, accounting for 50% of the mainstream joint venture pure electric vehicles.

overall, joint venture brands are under great pressure, especially japanese automakers, whose sales have fallen sharply. dongfeng nissan, dongfeng honda, and gac honda are no longer among the top ten, while gac toyota is the automaker with the largest decline in august.

gac toyota's sales in 2022 exceeded one million units, and in 2023, gac toyota's sales fell by 5.5% to 950,000 units. since the beginning of this year, gac toyota's sales have accelerated. from january to august this year, gac toyota sold 445,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 24.9%. affected by the impact of new energy vehicles and other factors, the sales of gac toyota's main models such as camry and levin have fallen by about 40%. recently, gac toyota dealers said that stores in many places have lowered their sales targets by about 20%, and at the same time encouraged dealers to pick up more cars through the incentive method of a tiered bonus pool.

among the three major japanese automakers (nissan, honda and toyota), honda is the automaker with the most obvious decline in sales in recent years. honda reached a sales peak of 1.627 million vehicles in 2020, and its sales have since fallen year by year, with the decline showing an expanding trend.

from 2021 to 2023, honda's sales in the chinese market were 1.5615 million, 1.3731 million, and 1.2342 million, down 4.0%, 12.07%, and 10.12% year-on-year, respectively. honda's terminal car sales in china in august were about 57,000 vehicles, down 44.3% year-on-year. honda's sales in china have fallen by more than 40% year-on-year for two consecutive months. recently, there have been reports that dongfeng honda is facing a strategic adjustment and plans to implement a large-scale layoff operation. it is estimated that the number of affected employees will reach 2,000. the layoff compensation plan is the "n+2+1" model, and there is even a phenomenon of queuing up to "fight" for layoffs.

on september 10, dongfeng honda's official weibo account posted that in order to ensure the company's sustainable operation and accelerate the electrification transformation, dongfeng honda will further improve the efficiency of personnel in the production field. this personnel optimization is a phased adjustment of the company's strategic transformation. the company will adhere to the "people-oriented" corporate philosophy, fully consider the wishes of employees and formulate reasonable solutions in accordance with laws and regulations.

cui dongshu, secretary-general of the china passenger car association, said that against the backdrop of an overall decline in the fuel vehicle market, new energy products of some leading domestic brands have already entered the core market segments of joint venture brands. joint venture brands that have missed out on the incremental market for new energy vehicles are facing pressure from shrinking market segments. automakers should accelerate their transformation in order to face future competition.