In the first quarter of 2022, the wholesale sales volume of passenger cars in China market increased by 8.6% year-on-year to 5.44 million, among which the wholesale sales volume of new energy passenger cars was 1.19 million, up by 155% year-on-year, and the share increased to 21.9%, up by about 13 percentage points year-on-year and 2 percentage points month-on-month, respectively, reaching a new high, showing an unprecedented rapid growth trend. CINNO Research predicts that the sales growth of new energy vehicles will show a short-term fatigue in the next few quarters due to the change of lithium battery prices guided by policies. In the first quarter of 2022, the share of pure electric new energy passenger cars in the Chinese market continued to increase by more than 80%. From the Top10 list of brands, due to the diversified efforts of domestic new energy passenger cars, independent brands occupied seven seats. BYD, which combines pure electric with hybrid electric and oil, consolidated its own brand new energy champion position, Tesla and Wuling Automobile ranked second and third respectively, and new car-making forces Tucki, Euler and Ideality were all on the list.
BYD is far ahead, with Q1'22 sales volume increasing by 430% year-on-year. BYD, a domestic brand in China's new energy passenger car market, jumped from the third place in Q1'21 to the first place in Q1'22, seizing the throne of Wuling Automobile, with a sales volume of 285,000 vehicles, a substantial increase of 430% year-on-year and an increase of 8% quarter-on-quarter. Thanks to the hot-selling contribution of BYD Qin PLUS and Song Series, it has formed a clear leading position in the segmented brand market. Q1'22 Tesla ranked second, with sales increasing by 163% year on year. Tesla, a high-end brand, occupies the top three sales volumes in China's new energy passenger car market, and its price increases are the highest, but its market sales performance is still outstanding. Q1'22 The sales volume of Tesla, a brand of China's new energy automobile market, increased by 163% year-on-year to 182,000 units, and the ranking remained unchanged year on year and month on month, ranking second. The brand's Tesla Model Y continues to sit on the throne of new energy SUV with a sales volume of 105,000 vehicles, and the car Tesla Model 3 follows Model Y with a drop of 29,000 vehicles. Q1'22 The sales volume of Wuling Automobile ranks third, and it is still gaining momentum. Q1'22 Wuling Automobile won the third place as a new energy brand with a sales volume of 107,000 vehicles, with a year-on-year increase of 10% and a month-on-month decrease of 24%; Its pure electric Wuling Hongguang MINI EV sedan ranked first among the Top10 sales of new energy vehicles in China in the first quarter. It is difficult to compete with BYD in brand sales because it only relies on Wuling Hongguang MINI EV to promote its brand status. Q1'22 Chery ranks fourth in sales volume, and its core competitiveness needs to be continuously improved. Q1'22 Chery's total sales volume increased by 259% year-on-year and 24% quarter-on-quarter, respectively, and the ranking fluctuated greatly, rising by 2 places year-on-year and 4 places quarter-on-quarter. Chery's mini-low-end pure electric QQ ice cream and small ant cars are popular. With the introduction of pure electric vehicles into the new energy market, the sales volume of Q1'22 increased by 155% year-on-year. Q1'22 Guangzhou Automobile sold about 45,000 vehicles, up 155% year-on-year and 8% quarter-on-quarter, ranking fifth among brands, with the ranking unchanged year-on-year and up 2 places quarter-on-quarter. Guangzhou Automobile is introduced into the new energy market on the exclusive platform of pure electric vehicles. The best-selling representative models are SUV-type Guangzhou Automobile Aian Aion Y and sedan-type Guangzhou Automobile Aion S, with the initial pricing of 100,000-150,000 yuan. The sixth to tenth sales brands of new energy passenger cars in China are Volkswagen, Tucki, Euler, Ideality and Toyota, respectively. Each brand is quite outstanding in the new energy market, with Q1'22 sales increasing year-on-year, and the ranking has changed greatly. With the intensive listing of new car-making forces and self-owned brand electric vehicles in the future, the drastic reshuffle of the new energy passenger car industry in the expansion is also a high probability event.