[car home Industry] In February, affected by the Spring Festival holiday, the overall sales volume of the automobile market declined to a large extent. After the Spring Festival, the "price war" quickly warmed up, and BYD took the lead in triggering a wave of car companies’ price cuts. At present, the development of the automobile industry has entered the deep water area, and the intelligent transformation has begun to speed up the shift. Huawei HarmonyOS Zhixing, Toyota and BYD have successively promoted the landing of high-level intelligent driving. In the future, the level of automobile intelligence will be the core element of market competition.

Data description:
1. Intelligent electric vehicle: a vehicle with pure electric energy, plug-in hybrid power (including extended range) and intelligent driving level above L2;
2. Class L2: A vehicle equipped with an adaptive cruise system and a lane keeping assist system as standard is considered to have a level L2 intelligent driving level;
3. Weighted selling price of cars: based on the quotations of dealers all over the country, the weighted selling price of cars in the current month is calculated by weighting the proportion of car clues. The terminal quotation of the models on sale under the car series and the proportion of the models concerned by consumers will affect the monthly fluctuation of the weighted selling price of the final car series;
4. Source of data: attention, clue number data, vehicle model data, new energy industry index data, etc. come from car home; Car sales come from market terminal sales data.
Download the full report and pay attention to WeChat official account of car home Research Institute. Just enter the keyword "Intelligent Electric Vehicle".
I. Market Sales Performance
■ Sales of new energy vehicles decreased month-on-month, and the proportion of smart cars reached a new high.
In February, the retail sales of passenger car market was 1.095 million, down 21.0% year-on-year and 46.2% quarter-on-quarter. The retail sales volume of the new energy vehicle market was 388,000 vehicles, down 11.6% year-on-year and 42.1% quarter-on-quarter. In February, the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles was 35.8%, which was 2.9 percentage points higher than that in January, but only 3.8 percentage points higher than that of 32.0% in the same period of last year. The year-on-year increase of penetration rate narrowed, so it is inevitable for car companies to launch a new round of "price war" to compete for the stock market at this moment.

Qin PLUS, who took the lead in price reduction in February, won the new energy sales list, while Tesla’s Model Y and Wenjie M7 () ranked second and third in the sales list. In addition, BYD’s five cars, namely Seagull, Song PLUS New Energy, Song Pro New Energy, Dolphin and Yuan PLUS, ranked in the top ten in the sales list. In addition, Hongguang MINIEV and Ideal L7 ranked sixth and ninth in the sales list. Due to the overall decline in sales in February, only the top six cars on the list sold more than 10 thousand.
In February, Top 5 smart car brands were BYD, Tesla, AITO Wenjie, LI and Weilai. Among them, BYD’s market share continued to decline by 1.8 percentage points month-on-month, accounting for 17.4% of the total sales of smart electric vehicles. AITO ranks third in the list of smart car hot-selling brands, surpassing LI. In February, the sales of Weilai and Extreme Krypton dropped slightly, ranking fifth and sixth among the best-selling brands of smart cars.

Looking at the sales rankings of various cars of smart electric vehicles, Model Y returned to the top of the list, while M7, which had the highest sales volume last month, ranked second with a gap of more than 1,000 vehicles, and they formed the first echelon of smart electric vehicle sales. Ideals L7, L8 and L9 rank third, fifth and eighth in the smart sales list. BYD only entered the top ten of the smart car sales list with three cars: Han, Song Pro New Energy and Song L. Competing in the stock market, BYD is bound to be intelligent. In the 2024 Dream Day held on January 16th, Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD, once revealed that "BYD will invest 100 billion yuan in the field of intelligence in the future, leading the development direction of new energy vehicles along the technical route of vehicle intelligence."

■ The sales volume of smart plug-in hybrid cars has dropped significantly.
In February, the sales volume of smart electric vehicles decreased by 40.4% from the previous month to 208,000 units. The sharp drop in overall sales has an impact on the proportion and pattern of various vehicle categories. Among them, the sales volume of smart plug-in hybrid vehicles declined the most, with the sales volume falling to 55,000, which was the same as that of intelligent extended-range vehicles. This is directly related to the decline in BYD sales last month. In addition to Qin PLUS new energy, BYD’s Song Pro new energy, Song PLUS new energy, Tang New energy, Han New energy and other car sales all showed a significant decline.

In terms of models, the sales of smart electric vehicles of all models declined in February. Among the cars that have sold more than 2,000 vehicles, the sales of Qin PLUS, which has just reduced its price, have increased, and only the sales of Wei brand Lanshan DHT-PHEV have increased slightly in SUV models. The intelligent MPV model saw the biggest decline, with the sales volume falling to 4.3%, and only 0.9 million vehicles were sold. In February, the sales volume of Tengshi D9 decreased by 50% month-on-month. Tucki X9, which just went on the market, ranked second in the sales list of intelligent MPV models, but it was only about one third of the sales volume of Tengshi D9.
Second, the heat of automobile consumption
■ The proportion of new energy concerns has reached a new high, and the proportion of smart cars has dropped.
According to car home Big Data, the proportion of attention to new energy sources rebounded in February, up 2.0 percentage points from the previous month, the highest level in history since statistics. The proportion of people concerned about smart electric vehicles declined, down 2.1 percentage points from the previous month to 64.1%. In the meantime, we can see that new energy vehicles with low proportion of smart driving configuration have received more attention this month. Among them, the representative models are Qin PLUS and destroyer 05, both of which have increased their attention by more than 200%.

■ New energy vehicles: The popularity of mainstream brands in China increased year-on-year
In the overall new energy market, except for the mainstream brands in China, the proportion of attention of other brand types has decreased. The proportion of attention of mainstream brands in China increased by 6.6 and 1.8 percentage points year-on-year to 58.4% respectively. Among them, the number of followers of BYD’s various cars represented by BYD Qin PLUS has greatly increased. In addition, the attention of Wuling Xingguang, Chang ‘an Qiyuan A05 and Deep Blue SL03, which also responded to the price adjustment, has also been greatly improved.

In terms of specific brands, among overseas mainstream brands, Honda and Toyota are equally concerned, and Kia ranks fifth in the attention list with the newly listed 2024 EV5. Among China’s new power brands, Weilai’s 2024 full-range models went on the market, helping Weilai surpass Tucki and rank third in the attention list. Among the mainstream brands in China, BYD’s attention proportion increased by nearly 10 percentage points from the previous month to 35.0%.
■ Smart cars: The popularity of mainstream brands in China increased year-on-year, while that of Tesla decreased year-on-year.
In the smart electric vehicle market, the proportion of attention of mainstream brands in China also increased by 7.2 and 0.5 percentage points year-on-year to 47.7%, which was higher than that in the overall new energy market, but lower than that in the overall new energy market. It not only reflects the long-term trend of improving the intelligence level of mainstream brands in China in the past year, but also shows the short-term strategy that mainstream brands in China take the lead in launching a "price war" on low-priced models to get attention.

In terms of specific brands, among the new power brands in China, Gaohe Automobile, which announced the suspension of production, ranked fifth in the attention list, mainly because of the negative news that attracted onlookers, and the number of followers of its several models increased by more than 70% month-on-month. Among the mainstream brands in China, Tengshi D9′ s 2024 model went on the market, and Tengshi rose to the third place in the attention list.
■ Medium-sized cars pay attention to the decrease in heat, while medium-sized and large MPVs pay attention to the increase in heat.
In terms of vehicle types, in the overall new energy market, the proportion of year-on-year attention of mini-cars and medium-sized cars has declined. Although the proportion of compact cars decreased by 0.3 percentage points year-on-year, it increased by 2.9 percentage points month-on-month, reaching the same level as medium-sized cars and medium-sized and large cars, and the proportion of all three was around 11%.
Compact cars are the main battlefield of this round of "price war", and the models with the largest increase in the proportion of concern are BYD Qin PLUS, destroyer 05 and Changan Qiyuan A05. The popularity of medium and large MPVs continued to increase, increasing by 1.9 and 0.2 percentage points year-on-year to 4.5% respectively, among which the number of followers of Tengshi D9, Lantu Dreamer and other cars increased greatly.

Looking at the smart electric vehicle market, the attention proportion of medium-sized cars has dropped the most in the past year, with the decline of attention of Tesla Model 3, BMW i3 and Tucki P7 as the representatives. The medium-sized and large SUVs and large SUVs have the highest year-on-year increase in attention. These two types of vehicles have high intelligent configuration rate, leaving a large room for China brands to increase. Among them, the successful performance of ideal L series, Wenjie M series, Wangwang U8 and tank new energy in the market is enough to prove it.
■ AITO asked the world to surpass Tesla and ranked first in the attention of new forces.
In February, Tesla’s attention was surpassed by China’s new power brand AITO for the first time. It can be seen from the top ten hot cars of new power brands that Tesla is wrestling with the world of inquiry, with M7 and M9 in the first and fourth places respectively, while Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 are ranked second and third, and M5 is ranked eighth in the world of inquiry. Weilai once again surpassed Tucki with the listing attention of all the 2024 new models, and the former "Wei Xiaoli" has now become the second echelon of the new power attention list. In February, the top ten hot cars were Zero Run C11 and Aouita 12.

Third, intelligent product analysis
■ In February, 138 new energy vehicles were launched, and smart new vehicles accounted for 69.6%.
In February, 138 new cars were launched by New Energy, and the number of new cars listed decreased by 2.1% year-on-year and increased by 29.0% quarter-on-quarter. In February, the intelligent allocation rate of new cars listed on the market increased from the previous month, with a total of 96 smart new cars listed, accounting for 69.6%. The new car comes standard with L2 intelligent driving capability, and the lowest price is the 2024 Longteng version of 1.5TD-DHT Pro 100KM excellent model of Geely Emgrand L HiP, with a guide price of 99,800 yuan; The highest price comes from the first limited edition of the 2024 Hi4-T from Tank 700 New Energy, with a guide price of 700,000 yuan.

■ In February, the overall level of intelligent configuration of new cars rebounded.
The intelligent configuration level of new cars listed in February was 69.6%. With the penetration of autonomous driving technology into low-priced vehicles and the gradual landing of advanced self-driving technology, it is estimated that the overall L2-class self-driving function of new vehicles will account for about 60% in 2024. At the same time, in addition to the intelligent basic configuration, the intelligent networked car will pay more attention to the user experience and provide more intelligent and personalized services, such as intelligent suspension system, high-level cognitive intelligent cockpit and smarter voice assistant.

■ All new cars listed above the price of 200,000 basically realize L2 self-driving configuration.
The following figure analyzes the distribution of new cars and smart new energy vehicles in each price range. Among the new energy vehicles listed in February, one new car with a price below 100,000 has reached the smart car standard. The most new models are listed at the price of 100,000-200,000, and the intelligent configuration rate has reached 58.2%. Only one car with a price of more than 200,000 yuan has no L2 self-driving configuration as standard. The average guide price of new smart cars listed was 272,000 yuan, and the median was 210,800 yuan, both of which were lower than last month.

Fourth, the market price trend
■ The new model of Krypton 001 went on the market, and the weighted quotation rose; The new destroyer 05 comes on the market, and the starting price is lowered.
In February, the top five cars with the weighted price increase in the smart electric car market were: Extreme Krypton 001, Yuanhang Y6, Toyota bZ3, Baojun Yunduo and Panamera New Energy. The increase in the weighted quotation of Krypton 001 is due to the launch of new models and the increase in the number of clues of high-priced models. Yuanhang Y6 is due to the fluctuation of weighted quotation caused by the unstable clues of various price models just listed in December last year.

The top five cars whose weighted selling prices have dropped are: Destroyer 05, Mercedes EQS, Changan Qiyuan A05, Nezha S and BMW i7. The decrease of the weighted selling price of destroyer 05 and Chang ‘an Qiyuan A05 was affected by the official downward adjustment of the guiding price in this round of "price war". The decline in the weighted selling price of Mercedes-Benz EQS is due to the dealer’s downward adjustment of the quotation.
■ Mercedes-Benz EQC dealer quotation is raised; The new Buick E4 model is on the market, and all the prices are reduced.
Among SUVs, the top five cars with weighted price increases are: Mercedes-Benz EQC, Lexus UX New Energy, BMW iX3, Kia EV5 and Roewe RX5 eMAX. The increase in the weighted selling price of Mercedes-Benz EQC is due to the dealer’s upward quotation. The increase in the weighted selling price of Lexus UX new energy is also due to the increase in the dealer’s quotation, and the proportion of clues of high-priced models has increased.

The top five cars whose weighted selling prices have dropped are Buick E4, Jennisys GV60, Audi Q4 e-tron, Audi e-tron (imported) and Yuanhang H8. Buick E4 is also a participant in this round of "price war". The price of the new Buick E4 has been adjusted, with a decrease of 27,000-30,000 yuan, which has brought down the weighted selling price. The main reason for the decrease in the weighted selling price of GV60 is that the dealer has lowered the quotation, and the distribution of clues of different price models fluctuates due to the launch of new models.
After the Spring Festival, the automobile market was swept by a vigorous wave of price reduction, and 2024 will be a crucial year to determine the future market structure. Car companies grit their teeth and make efforts at the same time in price control and intelligence level. In 2024, the intelligent networked automobile industry will continue to grow, and the growth space will shift from "quantity" to "quality" and "new". Technological innovation and policy support will be the key factors to promote the development of the industry. When the competition in the new energy automobile market shifts from incremental market to stock market, the competitiveness of automobile enterprises will be more reflected in the intelligent level. (Text/car home Research Institute)
