Sales decline of joint ventures in China over the 2 months of 2023
- Over the first two months of 2023, the Chinese passenger car market fell by 15% compared to the first two months of 2022. However, it is above all the month of January (with the holiday period in particular) which has impacted sales at the beginning of the year (-33% compared to January 2022) while the month of February was positive (+11% compared to the same month last year).
- Inovev observes a disparity between the performance of Chinese carmakers and foreign carmakers who produce in China. The latter suffer significant falls (often greater than 30%) while Chinese carmakers often show significant increases (the Chinese leader BYD is up 77%) or more modest increases but necessarily higher than the overall decline in the market. A few exceptions, however, such as Dongfeng
(-47.6%), FAW (-37.8%) or Great Wall (-36.2%).
(-47.6%), FAW (-37.8%) or Great Wall (-36.2%).
- For foreign carmakers, two of them are managing to progress: Tesla (+20.7%) and Mercedes (+20.4%) thanks to its subsidiary Smart which produces new battery electric models in China from January 2023.
- More generally, foreign carmakers fell by 29% on average over the first two months of 2023, while Chinese carmakers grew by 2% on average in a market at -15%. As a result, the market share of Chinese carmakers continued to grow in China in January and February 2023, to 53% against 43% in January-February 2022. This share was 50% in December 2022. The collateral victims of this situation were the Chinese carmakers who build vehicles in joint ventures, such as SAIC, FAW, Dongfeng, GAC or Changan. There is therefore a risk that in the long term these carmakers will fall to the level of independent Chinese carmakers, in terms of production volume.