The first nine months of sales of independent brands and possible changes

China's self-owned brand car companies are either owned or controlled by state-owned auto group companies such as FAW, Dongfeng, SAIC, Chang'an, BAIC, and GAC in the context of joint ventures with production vehicles. They are also independent of these large groups. Foreign independent brands - Chery, BYD, Geely, Great Wall, JAC, Brilliance, Zhongtai, Haima, Huatai, Lifan, Southeast, Jiangling, Huanghai, Zhongxing, etc. This article mainly analyzes the narrow-sale passenger car sales in September 2010 and January-September 2010 of the latter-type self-branded car enterprises (refer to the sum of sales of cars, SUVs, and MPVs, the same below).

September sales growth is lower than the group's own brand and foreign investment

The total sales volume of these self-owned car enterprises not affiliated with or controlled by the “Group” was 1.977 million units during the January-September period of 2010, an increase of 47.3% over the same period of last year, and the growth rate was higher than the average growth rate of China’s narrow passenger car industry by 39%. It is lower than the self-owned brands subordinate to or controlled by the “Group” (sales from January to September increased by 50.1% to 684,600).

However, in September, the total sales of self-owned brand car companies not under the “Group” increased by 18.6% year-on-year to 233,000 units, which was lower than the domestic foreign brands (22.88%), and even lower than that of “Group” subordinates or holdings. Of its own brand (sales in September increased by 32.4% to 86,600 units).

Four levels of sales of non-group auto brands

From the sales of January-September 2010, the sales of self-owned branded car companies subordinated or controlled by these non-“groups” basically have four levels:

The first level: Chery, BYD, Geely. From January to September last year, the sales of these three major car companies were all on the scale of 20,000 to 300,000. From January to September this year, the sales volume has been around 300,000 to 400,000 with an average growth rate of 30%.

Level 2: Great Wall, JAC, Brilliance, and Hippocampus. The sales of these auto makers last year from January to September were around 60,000 to 90,000. From January to September this year, the sales volume has reached 100,000 to 180,000 vehicles, with an average growth rate of 74%.

The third level: Zhongtai, Huatai, Lifan and Southeast. These car companies sold between 30,000 and 30,000 vehicles in the January-September period last year and reached 5-9 million units in January-September this year, with an average growth rate of 76%.

Level 4: Jiangling, Yellow Sea, ZTE. From January to September last year, the sales of these car companies were all less than 10,000 units. From January to September this year, the sales volume was about 13,000 units, with an average growth rate of 114%.

These four levels are not absolute. The Great Wall and Zotye, which are the highest-selling companies in the second and third tiers, are also among the fastest growing companies in their hierarchy. Sales of Great Wall and Zhongtai increased by 98.6% and 121.6% from January to September respectively. If this relatively high-speed growth can be maintained, the future sales volume of the two may be pushed into the previous level, which may lead to a new and more stable hierarchy.

From the sales of single month in September, the Great Wall grew 71.1% year-on-year, further narrowing the sales gap between Geely and BYD, which had growth rates of 6.4% and 24.9%, respectively. Zotye's September sales increased 91.6% from the same period last year to 12,214, which was more than the previous level of seahorses (10,678).

Note:

The Jiangling sales in this article and the chart refers to the number of sales of Landwind (including fashion), Powerway, and Fenghua collected by the Federation. Jiangling Holdings is a 50:50 joint venture between Changan Automobile and Jiangling Motors. This article classifies it as a self-owned car company that is not under the “Group” subsidiary or holding.