Imported cars only increased 1.9% in the first three quarters of sales

“This year, the overall situation of China’s imported auto market is good. From the end of 2015, it has shown a strong rebound in the 16th and 17th years. But overall, imported cars still maintain the medium-high level.” On November 8th, At the November auto market seminar organized by the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Association, Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Association, said that he was referring to the imported car market this year.

From a data point of view, from January to September of this year, the total automobile imports amounted to 884,000, an increase of 18.2% year-on-year, and imports continued to grow steadily. Among them, the import volume in September was 103,000 units, an increase of 26.1% year-on-year, continuing to cover the inventory situation.

However, with respect to the steady increase in imports, terminal demand shows a trend slowdown. From January to September, the cumulative sales of imported vehicles totaled 664,000, an increase of only 1.9% year-on-year. Among them, 83,000 imported vehicles were sold in September, down 1.8% year-on-year. This means that in the first three quarters of this year, there was a difference of 220,000 vehicles between import volume and sales volume.

Cui Dongshu pointed out that “In September, the sales of normal imported cars fell, but the pressure on destocking in the industry decreased. In September 2016, the imported cars had an inventories depth of 3.78 months, which is now declining and fell to 3.51 months in September 2017. ."

It is worth noting that parallel imported vehicles imported 15,000 parallel imported vehicles in September, accumulating 125,000 units in January-September, a year-on-year growth rate of 39.3% and 46.2%, respectively; parallel imports of imported vehicles from January to September 14.1%, which is the same as 14.1% from January to August.

In terms of the overall imported vehicle structure, all models achieved growth in September this year. Among them, imported passenger vehicles were 102,000, an increase of 26% year-on-year. Imported cars, SUVs, and MPVs were 43,000, 55,000, and 0.4 million, respectively, with share of 42%, 54.2%, and 3.8% respectively.

From January to September, China's total imports of cars, SUVs, and MPVs were 329,000, 503,000, and 39,000, respectively, accounting for 37.8%, 57.8%, and 4.5% respectively. It is not difficult to see that in the entire imported car market, the SUV is still a "sweet potato."

From January to September, cars, SUVs, and MPVs that were normally imported (excluding parallel imports, etc.) were cumulatively imported approximately 295,000, 345,000, and 250,000 vehicles respectively; of which, sedan and MPV increased by 6.3% and 16.2%, respectively. The concerned SUV models fell 2.4%. In parallel imports, SUVs are the absolute main force, accounting for nearly 90%.

In terms of sub-brands, among the top ten brands in terms of overall import volume in September, except Porsche, which was down 16.3%, other brands achieved growth. The Land Rover, Lincoln, and MINI brands grew rapidly, with growth rates of 98.9%, 161.1%, and 95.1%, respectively.

In terms of normal imports, the accumulated sales of all brands from January to September were basically stable. BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Porsche, and Volkswagen ranked in the top five. Of the top 10 auto brands sold in September, sales of seven brands increased. Among them, Ford has the highest growth rate driven by explorers, which is 69.1%.

It is worth mentioning that from January to September, parallel imports, Toyota, Nissan, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, BMW ranked the top five, accounting for nearly Jiucheng. Among them, Toyota accounted for the highest proportion of 52,000, accounting for 41.9% of the entire parallel imported cars, but with the rapid growth of Nissan, Mercedes-Benz and BMW brands, Toyota's share gradually decreased.

In terms of the proportion of emissions, from January to September, the displacement of imported cars below 3.0L accounted for 91.2%, which is 0.4% lower than the 91.6% in 2016. It is speculated that large-displacement imported cars have a rising trend.