Interface News reporter | Zhou Shuqi Interface News editor | Chen Xiaotong On April 1, the new forces in car manufacturing successively announced their sales performance for March. Despite the overall low sales during the Chinese New Year holiday in February, many car brands saw a significant rebound in sales in March, with both year-on-year and month-on-month growth remaining high.
AITO WENJIE is the first brand to announce March sales data. The data shows that in March, AITO WENJIE delivered a total of 31,700 new cars, surpassing Ideal Auto for the third consecutive month and becoming the sales champion among new car brands. The new M7 model is the main sales force for AITO WENJIE, with sales of 24,600 units in March, accounting for 77.53% of the total brand sales. Since the facelift was launched in September last year, the cumulative number of orders for the new M7 has exceeded 140,000 units. Another model that boosts the brand’s premium ability, the M9, had a monthly delivery volume of 6,243 units, ranking first in sales among new cars priced above 500,000 yuan (69130$). AITO WENJIE is not satisfied with its current sales performance and is participating in the industry price war through price reductions and equity adjustments. On April 1, AITO WENJIE announced an equity adjustment for the new M7, reducing the starting price by 20,000 yuan (2770$) to 229,800 yuan (31770$). Some believe that the new M7 has already fulfilled the accumulated orders from earlier, and needs to maintain market share through flexible terminal policies. Ideal Auto’s growth rate has slowed down. This car brand, which had a strong sales momentum last year, had sales of 29,000 units in March, far below the estimated 50,000 units by Ideal Auto CEO Li Xiang, and is the only new force whose sales have not returned to pre-Spring Festival levels.
Earlier, Ideal Car announced a downward adjustment in the first quarter delivery guidance for 2024. The expected delivery of Ideal Car vehicles in the first quarter was adjusted from 100,000 to 103,000 to 76,000 to 78,000. Actual delivery data shows that Ideal Car delivered 80,000 vehicles from January to March, slightly exceeding expectations. The latest electric car model, Ideal MEGA, launched in March, did not generate more orders for Ideal Car. Instead, it temporarily dragged down Ideal Car’s sales growth. Li Xiang admitted in an internal memo that due to the chaotic pace of Ideal MEGA, the sales team significantly reduced the time and effort to serve L-series users. This month, the high-selling model of Ideal Car, Ideal L6, will debut at the Beijing Auto Show. Three more electric car models will be launched successively. Ideal Car will sell 8 models at the same time. A leaked summary of Ideal Car’s discussion with investors revealed that Ideal Car changed its annual delivery target from 800,000 vehicles to 560,000 to 640,000 vehicles. Ideal MEGA’s sales guidance was lowered to 2,000 vehicles per month. In March, Zero Run Car’s sales doubled year-on-year and month-on-month, reaching 14,600 vehicles. This year, a total of 33,400 vehicles have been delivered. Last month, Zero Run Car launched its first global model, the C10, with a starting price of 128,800 yuan (17810$). This mid-size SUV offers larger dimensions and higher configurations than the compact SUV BYD Song PLUS DM-i. Zhu Jiangming, Chairman of Zero Run Car, stated in an interview with Interface News and other media that Zero Run Car’s sales ranking this year can at least move up one spot among new car manufacturers. In 2023, Zero Run Car sold 144,000 vehicles, ranking third behind Ideal Car and NIO. Three leading car companies in sales last month all have extended-range products for sale, in line with the current trend where pure electric products are not growing as fast as plug-in hybrids and extended-range models. Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that in February, wholesale sales of pure electric vehicles decreased by 22.8% year-on-year, while wholesale sales of extended-range vehicles increased by 147%. The sales performance of the two technology routes is significantly different. Among pure electric car brands, in March, Xpeng achieved sales of 13,000 vehicles, surpassing NIO to take the top spot. From January to March, Xpeng’s cumulative deliveries reached 33,000 vehicles, with the newly launched Xpeng P5 exceeding 30,000 units in its first month on the market. While maintaining sales growth, Xpeng is now facing direct competition from Xiaomi’s new car. On March 28, the Xiaomi SU7 was officially launched with a price range of 215,900 to 299,900 yuan (41460$), directly competing with Xpeng’s mid-size sedans, the P7 and P5. There are reports that, in response to the pressure from Xiaomi SU7, Xpeng released the P7 a month early to capture the attention of users. The new Xpeng P5 has adjusted some optional packages to standard equipment in terms of pricing, enhancing its cost performance advantage. After the launch of Xiaomi SU7, Xpeng quickly introduced an enhanced rear-wheel drive version of the P7, with a value of 20,000 yuan (2770$) in optional packages now included as standard. NIO has still not been able to shake off the title of “NIO 10,000”. Sales data for March was 11,900 vehicles, with cumulative deliveries this year reaching 30,000 vehicles. Previously, NIO also adjusted its first-quarter sales guidance, reducing the delivery outlook from 31,000 to 33,000 vehicles to around 30,000 vehicles. In order to maintain NIO’s luxury brand positioning and not engage in price wars, NIO has chosen to indirectly lower the threshold for consumers to purchase cars through means such as exchange subsidies and the BaaS battery rental service scheme. On April 1st, NIO announced a maximum of 1 billion yuan in subsidies for replacing gasoline vehicles. Oil car users who switch to NIO’s new car will receive a subsidy of 10,000 yuan (1380$) for optional equipment and other benefits worth about 15,000 yuan (2070$). NIO’s new BaaS battery rental service plan, released half a month ago, has increased the price reduction of cars and lowered the monthly service fee. Xiaopeng Motors and Nezha Motors are still experiencing low sales. In March, neither of them exceeded 10,000 units. Xiaopeng Motors sold 9,026 units in March, a 98.6% increase from February. Xiaopeng X9 delivered 3,946 units last month, with nearly 8,000 units delivered in three months. This year, Xiaopeng Motors has lowered the prices of its models several times. The mid-size SUV Xiaopeng G9 has a discount of 20,000 yuan (2770$), with a starting price of 243,900 yuan (33720$). The Xiaopeng G6, which is the mainstay of Xiaopeng’s sales, has adjusted its starting price to 189,900 yuan (26260$). The starting price of the Xiaopeng P7i has been reduced by 15,000 yuan (2070$), with a limited-time discount of up to 50,000 yuan (6910$) for the Performance Edition. New models from Xiaopeng Motors struggle to maintain long-lasting popularity. The Xiaopeng G6 was only popular for half a year. The main focus of Xiaopeng Motors’ sales growth this year is on the new brand MONA, which is a small pure electric car priced at around 150,000 yuan (20740$) and will debut at the Beijing Auto Show. Nezha Motors had the lowest sales in March, with only 8,317 units, and was the only car brand with a year-on-year sales decline. The company stated that its Tongxiang factory is undergoing renovation and expansion projects, which will have a significant impact on production in March and April. Nezha Motors CEO Zhang Yong, in an interview with First Financial, stated that this year Nezha Motors will focus on centralized production to save labor costs, reduce the manufacturing cost of each vehicle by 3,000 to 4,000 yuan (550$), and appropriately reduce the scale of some products that continue to incur losses or have short-term negative gross profit margins. This former rising star is still easing sales growth pressure through overseas markets, with overseas sales expected to reach 100,000 units in the next 1 to 2 years.