Review of major Chinese auto groups’ sales in February

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Due to the coronavirus spread, most Chinese automaker witness their sales slide precipitous in February. Among eight major automakers listed here, half of them posted year-on-year decrease of over 80%.

As to year-to-date performance, the respective sales volume of SAIC Motor and Great Wall Motor was more than halved over a year ago. Some companies, like Great Wall Motor and GAC Group, have lowered their 2020 sales target to alleviate the sales burden for dealers.

SAIC Motor

China's biggest automaker SAIC Motor saw its new vehicle sales in February plunge 86.95% year on year, but it is not an unexpected result as the overall industry has taken hit due to the coronavirus spread.

Affected by the drastic drop in February, the automaker's year-to-date sales were more than halved over the year-ago period.

The production was down to a record low level as well. Last month, the group produced 32,260 new vehicles, a year-on-year nosedive of 90.17%. Correspondingly, the Jan.-Feb. outputs plummeted 52.55% to only 451,181 units.

（Photo source: SAIC-GM-Wuling)

The subsidiaries focusing on domestic market all faced sharp decrease. I would be remiss not to mention the winner of the championship. SAIC Volkswagen was no longer the ever-victorious general, and it was overtaken by SAIC-GM-Wuling, which earns much likes with its new identity—China's first automaker that produces masks and manufacture mask-producing facility.

Changan

Chongqing Changan Automobile Co.,Ltd (Changan) said its Feb. auto sales slumped 73.7% from a year ago.

It is not strange to see that all subsidiaries suffered substantial sales slide amid the coronavirus outbreak. Notably, Changan Ford was the least-hit one with a decrease of 39.9%, a pretty low level compared to most of OEMs in the country. The Sino-U.S. joint venture achieved growth in Jan. and last Dec. after a long-lasting downturn between 2018 and 2019. Thus, the relatively small base number protected it from be tremendously hit.

For the first two months, Changan saw its auto sales significantly shrank 34.8% year on year to 163,341 units. The sales of Changan's locally-born brand stood at 124,063 units, including 94,118 PVs. It is worth noting again that the YoY decline in Changan Ford's sales only reached 9.7%.

Dongfeng Motor Corporation

Headquartered in the epicenter Wuhan, Dongfeng Motor Corporation recorded a huge decrease of 80.69% in Feb. sales. Its year-to-date sales shrank 34.24% over a year ago.

Dongfeng Motor Company Limited (DFL), the joint venture between Nissan and Dongfeng, posted a 75.18% sales decline in Feb. Dongfeng Nissan was the biggest sales contributor with a volume of 14,643 units. Other branches like Dongfeng Venucia and Zhengzhou Nissan sold fewer than 1,000 units.

Notably, the sales volumes of Dongfeng Infiniti, Dongfeng Honda and Dongfeng Renault all plunged to zero in February.

（Photo source: Dongfeng Motor's WeChat account)

The group is moving forward with its work and production resumption since the epidemic is being effectively controlled. The subsidiaries in Xiangyang and Shiyan took the lead. In Wuhan, Dongfeng Honda and Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle Company were permitted to resume operation from March 10, while are currently working one shift instead of two due to the low attendance of employees. Besides, Dongfeng Nissan also reopened its Xiangyang plant on March 12.

Geely Auto

Geely Auto's new vehicle sales for the first two months of 2020 totaled 133,006 units (including the sales of Lynk & Co), according to a post on the automaker's WeChat account, plunging 45% compared to the same period a year ago.

As of February, the company has fulfilled 9.4% of the 1.41 million-unit sales target set for the year of 2020.

（Photo source: Geely Auto's WeChat account)

Among the products sold between Jan. and Feb., 6,421 units were new energy and electrified vehicles (hereby referring to BEVs, HEVs, MHEVs and PHEVs). Besides, the year-to-date exports slumped 59% over the prior-year period to 4,847. In the domestic market, 128,159 new vehicles were sold so far this year, a year-over-year slide of 44%.

For the month of February, the automaker sold 21,168 vehicles, facing a substantial decrease of 75% from a year ago. Of those, the volume of cars, SUVs and MPVs reached 8,321 units, 11,934 units and 913 units respectively.

The Lynk & Co brand posted a sales volume of 2,066 units in February.

GAC Group

GAC Group sold 19,347 new vehicles during the anti-coronavirus month, suffering a year-on-year plunge of 81.08%. With 195,618 units sold in total, the decrease in year-to-date sales stood at 37.3%.

A shining point worth mentioning is that the group's new energy PV sales in February still surged 51% from the previous year to 1,630 units, of those 1,619 units were the contribution of GAC NE, a number doubled over the prior-year period. Therefore, the group sold a total of 6,524 new energy PVs between Jan. and Feb. with a remarkable growth of 86%. Meanwhile, the year-to-date volume of GAC NE also soared 66% from a year earlier to 4,621 units.

（Photo source: GAC Trumpchi)

Last month, all subsidiaries were inflicted heavy sales decrease of over 70%. Among them GAC Motor was the least-hit one with a drop of 72.08%. The group's self-owned PV unit was also the only subsidiary that achieved growth in January. Besides, GAC FCA and GAC Mitsubishi were bit by year-over-year plunge of over 90% with only 316 units and 350 units sold respectively.

JAC Motors

For the first two month, JAC Motors saw its sales slumped 42% from a year earlier. During the month of February, the Hefei-based automaker sold 11,550 vehicles (-63.43%), including 758 all-electric PVs.

Export volume also represented sharp downturn. According to JAC's announcement, it exported 5,145 vehicles so far this year, a year-over-year drop of 33.51%.

（Photo source: JAC Motors)

The company announced it 2019 net profit attributable to shareholders reached RMB106.015 million, bringing the money-losing firm into the black over the annual loss of RMB786.144 million for 2018.

However, excluding the impact of certain no-recurring gains and losses, the company still faces a net loss of RMB978.434 million. The annual report shows that the governmental subsidy that is included into the current profits and losses amounts to RMB1.117 billion, which significantly help the net profit represent positive eventually.

Great Wall Motor

In February, Great Wall Motor (GWM), China's biggest SUV and pickup manufacturer, saw its new vehicle sales nosedive 85.48% from a year ago to 10,023 units.

The year-to-date sales also took a hit amongst the shock waves brought by coronavirus and the downturn led by the Lunar New Year holiday.

Although the domestic market plunged to a freezing point due to the unexpected outbreak, GWM successfully maintained the rising impetus in overseas business. In February, the export volume edged up 2.04% year on year to 3,003 units, making the Jan.-Feb. volume total 7,445 units (+11.19%).

Haval brand encountered an 85.51% slump last month. The Haval H6 was still the best-seller, while the epidemic brought its sales down by 80.29%. The Haval H9 was the unique one regarding Jan.-Feb. sales by featuring a 9.45% growth, which should be largely attributable to its small base number.

As for the pickup unit, the sales of the Wingle and the Great Wall C30 sharply fell 89.13% and 80.38% respectively.

BYD

BYD sold only 5,501 new vehicles in February, encountering a sharp year-on-year decrease of 79.05% during the most critical period of coronavirus fight.

NEV sales tumbled 80.57% from a year ago to 2,803 units, for the eighth month in a row showing downturn. Oil-fueled vehicle unit was destined to face slide because of the epidemic, ending the five-consecutive-month year-over-year rising momentum.

For the first two months, BYD saw its new vehicle sales plummet 56.65% to 30,674 units. The company posted a 42.68% decline in Jan. sales, while the blame should be mainly laid on the Spring Festival holiday even though the epidemic erupted in the same month.

（Photo source: BYD's WeChat account)

Despite the sales slump, there was still good news for BYD. Since the company joined the string of automakers which shift gears into medical supplies, BYD has now become the world's largest face mask makers with a daily capacity of 5 million units.