Author: Erchai

A few days ago, a chart of insurance sales volume for April (as of April 17th) among domestic car companies was spread online. BYD has taken the lead and become the top-selling domestic car company, while the usual listed joint ventures, such as FAW-Volkswagen, Shanghai Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, as well as domestic car companies Geely, Changan, and Great Wall have all experienced a decline in sales. It is no surprise that BYD will take the crown of car sales champion in April.

It’s not that Volkswagen and GM can’t sell cars anymore, but in March and April, due to the epidemics in the Yangtze River Delta and Northeast regions, the vehicle manufacturing plants in Changchun and Shanghai had to stop production. The supply chains of spare parts were impacted in all regions nationwide. The five major vehicle factories, including FAW-Volkswagen and FAW-Toyota in Changchun, only resumed production on April 11th. SAIC-GM, SAIC-Volkswagen, and Tesla in Shanghai only announced the resumption of production on April 19th. Even manufacturers who were not located in epidemic-stricken areas had problems with their production output or even had to stop production due to the supply chain issues.

BYD’s advantage is due to its relatively sound self-operated industrial chain. BYD’s self-researched and produced blade battery avoided being completely cut. Additionally, BYD has factories in Xian, Changsha, and Shenzhen. These regions were relatively less affected by the epidemic, allowing for normal production. Based on the currently disclosed information, there should be no problem with BYD taking the crown in domestic car sales in April. Next, let’s take a closer look at the sales of the car companies which have already released their sales volume.

BYD

According to the production and sales data officially released by BYD, the sales of new energy cars in April reached 106,042 units, an increase of 313% YoY. Although BYD officially announced the cessation of fuel vehicle production and instead focus on electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle businesses at the beginning of last month, its sales figures were not affected at all. Not only did it become the most exaggerated car company in terms of growth rate, but it also achieved the highest growth rate among other car companies.

Even so, the hot-selling models of BYD, such as Qin PLUS DM-i and Song PLUS DM-i, are still hard to come by and require a wait. According to reports by insiders, BYD still has nearly 400 thousand orders that have not been met; this number is indeed somewhat exaggerated.

BYD set a sales target of 1.5 million vehicles this year and completed nearly 400,000 vehicles in the first four months. Actually, according to the current popularity of BYD’s new cars, the difficulty of completing the sales volume is not high. The main thing still depends on BYD’s production capacity, including whether the supply chain can keep up with such a large growth demand.

It is not an exaggeration to say that we are witnessing the history of a domestic car company that only sells new energy vehicles becoming the sales champion. This was unthinkable before.

Just like the poster made by BYD for the 200,000th Han new car offline, a Chinese brand car priced at “more than 200,000 yuan, offline more than 200,000 yuan,” who could have thought that BYD would be the first to achieve this achievement?

GAC AION

In addition to BYD, GAC AION is a traditional domestic manufacturer with relatively high sales of new energy vehicles. In April, it continued to successfully break through 10,000 units and reached 10,212 units, a year-on-year increase of 23%. The sales volume in the first four months was 55,000 units, which was significantly higher than last year.

The main selling models of GAC AION are the sedan AION S and the SUV AION Y. Both cars are aimed at the pure electric market of around 150,000 yuan, and have good space, design, and endurance performance, and are considered good value for money pure electric vehicles in the 130,000-200,000 yuan range.

ZEALAUTO

Last month, the sales champion of the new forces was not NIO or XPeng, but ZEALAUTO, a company that has been quietly running with them. In April, it delivered 9,087 units, and due to its low base, its year-on-year growth exceeded 200%.

ZEALAUTO currently has two models on sale, one is the microcar T03 with a price of around 80,000 yuan, and the other is the mid-size SUV C11 with a price of around 200,000 yuan.

Moreover, ZEALAUTO has a mid-size sedan C01 that is about to be released, which is said to be able to accelerate from zero to one hundred kilometers in less than three seconds. The increasing product line is making ZEALAUTO gradually stand out among the new forces, and it is no longer the car company that was once mocked for only selling electric small sports cars (S01). In the future, the nickname “Wei Xiaoli” needs to add another ZEALAUTO.# New forces “The Three Giants”
Last month, due to the problem of parts supply, the sales of the three giants of new forces were affected. XPeng Motors had the highest sales, with a total of 9,002 vehicles delivered, including 3,714 P7, 3,564 P5, and 1,724 G3, which was considered a stable output.

NIO and Ideal were not so lucky, limited by the cutoff of the Shanghai parts supplier, NIO only sold 5,074 vehicles last month, of which less than 700 ET7, which has just started deliveries, have been delivered. The subsequent pressure brought by the supply chain cannot be significantly improved in the short term.

Ideal was also affected by the Shanghai supplier. In the previous month, only 4,167 units of Ideal ONE were delivered, which was only half of the normal sales. However, the total delivery volume of Ideal ONE has reached nearly 160,000 units, and its single-car sales are still the highest among new forces.

The performance of NIO’s second-tier brand NIO ES8 in April was also relatively eye-catching, with 8,813 units delivered, higher than NIO and Ideal. Among them, the 100,000-class NIO ES8 V delivered 5,694 units, and the 150,000-class NIO ES8 U delivered 3,119 units.

Dongfeng Motor Corporation

Since the launch of the Peugeot 508, Dongfeng Motor Corporation has delivered sales reports on time at the beginning of every month. In April, Dongfeng delivered a total of 9,316 vehicles (wholesale volume), with a year-on-year growth rate of 22%. Although the specific sales data for Peugeot series is not publicized, according to the current situation of French cars and past sales, Citroen’s Peugeot 508 and, to a lesser extent, 4008 and 2008 of Peugeot should have sold more.

In the first four months, Dongfeng Motor Corporation’s total sales volume was 39,600 units, which has made great progress compared to previous years. This year, Dongfeng has set a sales target of 170,000 units. It will be difficult to achieve this goal based on this pace and the impact of the epidemic.

Geek+

Geek+ 001 can be said to be a car with much fanfare but little actual impact. At the beginning of its release, the entire automotive industry was praising it so much that it was expected to sell out once it was on the market. But now, the hype has faded, and the sales volume is not surprising.

2137 vehicles were delivered in April, which is a significant increase compared to the previous month’s 1795 vehicles. With the increase in cost, the price of JiKe 001 is constantly rising. The dual-motor long-range version now costs around 386,000 yuan (increased by approximately 20,000 yuan), and the long-range single-motor version is close to its suggested retail price of 300,000 yuan. However, it is not unrealistic to expect a sales volume of 30,000 electric vehicles with such a price point. Tesla will be the first to challenge this.

As of today, only a few automakers have released their sales figures. Other automakers are unlikely to proactively disclose their numbers due to the impact of the pandemic and supply chain issues. It is not a satisfying result for all of them. Strictly speaking, in April, there was only one winner – BYD, which achieved stable growth. Do you think BYD can become the domestic sales champion this year? Let’s discuss it in the comment section.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.