In the early stage, a series of policies to promote automobile consumption promoted the recovery of automobile market. Recently, Heilongjiang, Shanxi and other places have introduced policies to promote automobile consumption, which constantly stimulate the market vitality. According to industry insiders, the fourth quarter is the peak season of traditional consumption. With multiple policy measures taking effect, automobile consumption still has strong support, and it is expected that the automobile market will achieve steady growth throughout the year.
Policy continues to exert strength.
Among the latest policies to promote automobile consumption in various places, some places have extended the implementation period of relevant policies and maintained policy continuity. On October 14th, 'Several Measures of Heilongjiang Province on Invigorating Automobile Circulation and Expanding Automobile Consumption Upgrade' (referred to as 'Several Measures' for short) proposed that the provincial subsidy period for local consumption promotion funds should be extended from May 1st, 2022 to July 31st, 2022 to November 30th, 2022, and cities (prefectures) should be supported to issue government vouchers, formulate government voucher issuance policies according to local conditions, and purchase new cars (passenger cars) for residents.
The Notice of Jinan Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology on Continuing to Implement the Policy of Promoting Commercial Vehicle Consumption on October 17th pointed out that according to the requirements of the Notice of Continuing to Implement the Policy of Promoting Commercial Vehicle Consumption issued by Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce and other seven departments, the policy of promoting commercial vehicle consumption will continue until December 31st, 2022. According to the notice, in order to strengthen the implementation effect of the policy of promoting consumption of commercial vehicles, a list of first-class commercial vehicle dealers registered in Jinan is now collected; Subsidies for car purchases are distributed in batches, and the second batch of subsidy audit is scheduled for mid-November.
Many places provide subsidy funds, expand the scale of funds for automobile promotion activities, and enhance the driving effect of activities. Shanxi Provincial Department of Commerce and Shanxi Provincial Department of Finance recently issued a notice to support the promotion of automobile consumption in 2022. According to the arrangement, each city will co-ordinate funds to purchase more than 50,000 yuan of non-operating new cars (including non-operating pickup trucks) from automobile sales enterprises in Shanxi Province from September 1 to November 30, 2022, and give subsidies to individual consumers who are licensed in Shanxi Province; Encourage qualified cities to trade in old ones, scrap them, and promote automobile consumption; Encourage municipalities to organize automobile sales enterprises, refined oil enterprises and insurance companies to jointly carry out various promotional activities such as giving away fuel cards, automobile maintenance and repair, automobile insurance concessions, etc.
To this end, Shanxi provincial financial subsidy funds have a total scale of 100 million yuan, which is earmarked for special purposes. It will only be used as the subsidy funds for the purchase of automobiles of 50,000 yuan or more to 300,000 yuan (excluding) during the period from September 1 to November 30, 2022 in various cities to promote automobile consumption activities.
Zhejiang Banking Insurance Regulatory Bureau recently announced that it has guided financial institutions to continuously optimize financial products and services for automobile consumption, and reasonably determined the down payment ratio, loan interest rate and repayment period on the premise of compliance with laws and regulations and controllable risks, so as to increase credit support for automobile consumption; Guide insurance institutions to further optimize the new energy automobile insurance business, and encourage financial leasing companies to strengthen cooperation with automobile manufacturers, vigorously develop the leasing business of manufacturers, and provide financial support for more automobile consumers through the leasing mode of manufacturers.
New energy vehicles are strongly supported.
According to the data released by China Automobile Association, in September 2022, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China reached 755,000 and 708,000 respectively, up 9.3% and 6.2% from the previous month and 1.1 times and 93.9% from the same period last year. In the first nine months of this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China reached 4.717 million and 4.567 million respectively, up by 1.2 times and 1.1 times respectively. The penetration rate of new energy vehicles has been further improved.
'After the implementation of the policy of halving the purchase tax of fuel vehicles, the national new energy vehicle market has not been affected, but has achieved unexpected growth from June to September.' Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the Association, said, 'Recently, the electric vehicle production capacity of some manufacturers has been continuously improved, and the expected increase in supply and oil price has brought about a hot market. In September, the trend of new energy vehicles and traditional fuel vehicles was obviously promoted by policies.'
It is worth mentioning that the domestic new energy automobile industry is still in the 'honeymoon period' of policy support. Recently, policies to promote automobile consumption introduced by various localities continue to give strong support to new energy vehicles.
'Several Measures' explicitly mentioned that it is necessary to speed up the popularization and application of new energy vehicles. Among them, to break the local protection of the new energy vehicle market, it is not allowed to set a local catalogue of new energy vehicle models, and it is not allowed to set unreasonable vehicle parameter indicators for the sales and consumption subsidies of new energy vehicle products; According to the actual situation, all localities give purchase subsidies to public service vehicles such as new energy buses; Implement the state's financial support policy for the construction of charging piles as public facilities, and encourage qualified cities and counties to subsidize key infrastructure construction and supporting operation services; According to the actual situation, the parking fees and charging service fees of new energy vehicles will be reduced as appropriate.
A few days ago, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province introduced policies to promote the consumption of new energy vehicles. It is stipulated that if a new energy vehicle is purchased before December 31, 2022 and a unified invoice for motor vehicle sales is obtained, a subsidy of 5,000 yuan to 15,000 yuan (including electricity subsidy and parking subsidy in 1000 yuan) will be given to each vehicle according to the purchase price (including tax in the unified invoice for motor vehicle sales).
In addition, Shaoxing has also increased subsidies for vehicle renewal and new energy vehicles going to the countryside, and increased the incentives for three-child families to buy cars and talents to buy cars.
Maintain a rapid growth trend.
In the third quarter of this year, the automobile market showed a general trend of 'off-season is not weak, and peak season reappears', which drove the industry to stabilize and rebound. Among them, in September, automobile production and sales continued to grow rapidly year on year; Consumer promotion policies such as preferential vehicle purchase tax have continued to exert efforts, and passenger car sales have returned to normal state, showing a rapid growth trend.
The production and sales data disclosed by some listed car companies also boosted market morale. In the first nine months of this year, the production and sales of BYD's new energy vehicles were 1,191,600 and 1,180,100 respectively, up by 248.74% and 249.56% year-on-year.
SAIC sold 517,100 vehicles in September this year, a record high this year. Since May, the company has been accelerating the pace of production and sales replenishment, achieving 'five consecutive increases' from the previous month.
Guangzhou Automobile Group produced 228,100 vehicles in September this year, a year-on-year increase of 41.52%; In the first nine months of this year, the cumulative output was 1,832,600 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 26.94%. In September this year, the sales volume of automobiles was 237,200, a year-on-year increase of 44.32%; In the first nine months of this year, the cumulative sales volume was 1.825 million units, a year-on-year increase of 22.18%.
Guangzhou Automobile Group said recently that a new round of purchase tax reduction and exemption policy introduced this year covers most models of Guangzhou Automobile. It is expected that the policy of halving the purchase tax in the second half of the year, especially in the fourth quarter, will have an obvious stimulating effect on automobile consumption. In the second half of the year, Guangzhou Automobile Group will go all out to challenge the goal of 15% year-on-year growth in production and sales.
As for the performance of the automobile market in the fourth quarter, China Automobile Association expects that under the sustained effect of the policy of stabilizing the economy and promoting consumption, automobile production and sales will continue to maintain a rapid growth trend in the fourth quarter, new energy vehicles and automobile exports will continue to develop well, and the automobile market will achieve a steady growth target throughout the year.
At the same time, the China Automobile Association also said that the automobile market still needs a sustained policy boost. The effect of the central and local policies to promote consumption, such as halving the purchase tax this year, is immediate. It is hoped that relevant policies can be continued in 2023 to ensure the steady development of the automobile industry.