China Automobile Association calls for a rational treatment of this round of automobile promotion market and a return to normal order as soon as possible.

Cctv newsAccording to China Automobile Industry Association’s WeChat WeChat official account news, since March, the price reduction of automobile promotion has aroused widespread concern and heated discussion in the market. China Automobile Industry Association (hereinafter referred to as "China Automobile Association") has also noticed the evolution of the situation. On March 16th, Auto Horizon, the official media of China Automobile Association, analyzed the current auto market dynamics and published its views on this situation, which were widely recognized by all sectors of society. Combined with the recent situation reflected by all parties, China Automobile Association believes that this round of price reduction speculation should be cooled down as soon as possible, so that the industry can return to normal operation and ensure the healthy and stable development of the industry throughout the year.

First, considering the performance of the automobile market since last year, it is necessary to take measures to stabilize growth.

In the first half of 2022, the epidemic had a great impact on the supply chain of the automobile industry chain. The state issued a policy of steady growth in time, and local governments also actively responded to the call of the CPC Central Committee the State Council to promote automobile consumption according to local conditions, so that the automobile industry gradually returned to normal operation and played an active role in stabilizing growth and promoting consumption. In the fourth quarter of last year, especially since the outbreak of the national epidemic in December, the rhythm of automobile production and sales has been seriously affected again. In 2023, the overall sales of the automobile industry dropped significantly in January and February, the terminal inventory of enterprises rose sharply, and the operating pressure increased. Enterprises took various measures to reduce the inventory. Local governments have also taken measures to activate the market in the first quarter of the new year. Local governments and enterprises, including Hubei Province, have jointly launched a large-scale consumption promotion policy, aiming at stimulating local automobile consumption and helping enterprises solve difficulties.

Second, most of the promotions are old stock models, and exaggerating the price reduction propaganda is misleading to consumers.

There are many reasons for this round of short-term promotion. Most of the preferential models introduced by enterprises are long-aged, old models or unsalable inventory models. In the terminal market, these models have already had considerable preferential prices before this round of promotion. In order to attract attention, the terminal promotion exaggerates the price reduction and increases the number of customers, which is easy to mislead consumers. China Automobile Association calls for proper marketing and publicity, and objective and accurate media reports.

Third, China’s new energy vehicles are growing rapidly, and fuel vehicles are also accelerating technological upgrading.

In the past two years, China’s new energy automobile industry has accumulated a lot, and the market has shown an explosive growth trend. Last year, the total production and sales reached about 7 million vehicles, and the market share also reached a quarter. Looking forward to 2023, the production and sales of new energy vehicles are expected to reach 9 million, and continue to maintain a relatively fast growth rate. The China Automobile Association believes that although new energy vehicles are developing rapidly, fuel vehicles are also accelerating technological upgrading and constantly adapting to new changes in market demand. They will coexist for a long time to meet different consumer needs. Consumers should make their own choices according to their own usage scenarios and needs.

Fourth, the price war is not a long-term solution, and the automobile market should return to normal order as soon as possible.

With the acceleration of the transformation and upgrading of the automobile industry, traditional automobile enterprises have invested heavily in the fields of electrification, intelligence and networking, and are under the dual pressure of stable operation and transformation and upgrading, and their profitability is weak. Of course, it is a normal business measure to reduce the price of inventory and recover the cost appropriately, but it cannot be reduced to a price war. The price war will not last long, and value for money is an eternal business rule. In the new journey of Chinese modernization, the automobile industry bears the heavy responsibility of building a powerful automobile country. Automobile enterprises should focus on the long-term, make more efforts in product technology, quality, service and brand power, and devote themselves to high-quality development. In the process of steady growth and promoting consumption, local governments should adopt proper methods. The government, enterprises and media should treat this rationally and jointly safeguard market order. The China Automobile Association calls on the society and the media to provide positive public opinion guidance for the healthy and sustainable development of the automobile industry and create a good consumer psychology and market atmosphere.

At present, the effect of the national economic stabilization policy continues to appear, and the overall macroeconomic operation shows a trend of stabilization and recovery. I hope that the automobile industry will return to the normal market order as soon as possible and make due contributions to the steady growth of the national economy.