With the release of SAIC GM Wuling production and sales data for December on January 11, the cumulative annual sales of domestic mainstream car companies in 2021 have been made public. Among its own brands, SAIC GM Wuling ranks first in sales of a single car company with a sales performance of 1.76 million vehicles, but in the narrow passenger car market, which attracts more market attention, Geely, Great Wall and Chang'an still compete for hegemony. Finally, Geely became the "independent number one" in the domestic passenger car market in 2021 with sales of 1.328 million vehicles.
However, both Geely and Great Wall failed to meet their annual sales targets, with actual completion rates of 87 per cent and 86 per cent, respectively. Changan independent brand passenger cars have achieved a breakthrough compared with themselves, recording the highest value over the years, but also exceeding the annual sales target.
In terms of main models, the annual sales of Geely's "China Star" series reached 210000, making it the main force of Geely's entire brand, while the Harvard brand played an even more important role in the Great Wall, with annual sales of 770000 vehicles, an increase of 2.6% over the same period last year. Changan CS75 series sales exceeded 280000 vehicles, up 5.6% from the same period last year.
From the perspective of high-end brands, Geely Lock brand performance is more eye-catching, with annual sales of 220500 vehicles, an increase of 25.68% over the same period last year; Changan automobile high-end product series "UNI" also sold more than 120000 vehicles for the whole year. The performance of the Great Wall Wei brand is slightly weaker. Because of the independence of the tank brand, the Great Wall Wei model is only supported by the Mocha, Macchiato and latte series, with annual sales of only 58400, with sales figures for almost 1/4 of Lecker's annual sales.
In terms of new energy vehicles, Great Wall is more outstanding, with the Euler brand selling 135000 vehicles for the whole year, up 140% from the same period last year. Geely New Energy still has a weak performance, with only 100000 electrified models sold for the year, of which the polar krypton brand delivers 6007. Changan Automobile is not as strong as the former two in terms of new energy, with only the A00-class car Changan Benz E-Star selling more than 70, 000 vehicles for the year.
Next, new energy and intelligent high-end products will become the "highlights" of the three independent brands. "this year, Geely's high-end smart electric brand polar krypton plans to meet its delivery target of 70, 000 vehicles and will export polar krypton 001 models to the EU market early next year, and the overall overseas export of polar krypton is expected to reach 100000 in 2025." Geely told the Financial Associated Press that polar krypton cars will launch seven models by 2025. According to Geely's latest sales forecast, Geely aims to sell 1.65 million vehicles in 2022, an increase of about 24% over 2021.
Great Wall has set a more aggressive target of selling 1.9 million vehicles a year in 2022, an increase of about 48.32 per cent over 2021.
"Great Wall will launch a new smart electric technology on January 14, when the Wei Mocha DHT-PHEV will officially go on sale." Industry insiders close to Great Wall revealed to reporters that Great Wall's new intelligent electric technology or "upgraded" PHEV technology can have a range of more than 200km in pure electric drive mode.
It is reported that in terms of products, Great Wall will launch 19 new models in 2022, covering all its sub-brands, including popular models such as tank 500 and salon brand machine Jialong. It is worth mentioning that Great Wall Motor will also launch a car project in 2022, and has conducted a tender for the whole car brand at its bidding center.
Changan Automobile, which lags behind in the field of new energy and intelligence, will also focus on this layout in 2022. Among them, C385, the first product of the pure electric series based on the new platform, is scheduled to go on sale in the first half of 2022, while Avita 11, the first model of the high-end smart brand Avita, which integrates Changan, Huawei and Ningde era technology, has been determined to start delivery in the third quarter of 2022 at the latest.
In addition to the "independent top three" of Great Wall, Geely and Changan, which have a market size of more than one million, Chery was closely followed, with sales of 848000 vehicles in 2021, and SAIC passenger car sales exceeded 800000 for the first time. BYD achieved 730000 sales by relying on the rapid growth of new energy sales, while in the "third echelon", Dongfeng and Guangzhou Auto sold 542000 and 444300 respectively.
"Changan, Geely, Great Wall and other independent brands are super strong, and head independent brands quickly occupy a more favorable position." Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Federation, said, "traditional fuel vehicle joint venture brands are under pressure this year, and independent brands have been given the opportunity to counter-attack in an all-round way. From rural areas to cities and then to first-tier cities, the performance of independent brands in the consumer market is encouraging."
According to the latest data from the Federation of passengers, the retail market share of independent brands reached 41% in 2021, an increase of 5.6 percentage points over last year. In this market pattern, the competition between head independent brands will be more fierce.
