“May this year is the 'watershed' of the auto market. Car sales have been declining all the way, and commercial vehicles have risen sharply in a short pause.†Looking back at the auto market this year, Miao Wei, general manager of Dongfeng Motor Corporation, believes that due to external factors, this year’s domestic auto The market has undergone significant changes, but the external cause is only a "trigger," and internal causes are fundamental.
Miao Wei said that in May, seven ministries announced three years of “super cure†programs. After a short period of confrontation between transporters and policy makers, the “invisible hand†of the market economy began to play a role, and the freight rates for roads rose. The economic benefits of temptation to transport -> losers began to buy more horsepower, approved tonnage larger trucks. Especially in the traditional off-season of truck sales in July and August, the auto market has emerged as the second peak of sales in a year. This high growth trend has continued until October.
In contrast, sales of cars fell after the month of May. Although statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers in November showed an 18% increase in sales of cars, there are false components such as corporate pressrooms, and the number of cars sold to consumers is still decreasing.
Miao Wei believes that after the macro-control, the state-owned commercial banks have tightened monetary policy, dealers' working capital loans and personal auto mortgage loans have basically been in a stagnant state, which is the external reason for the changes in the auto market. However, the real internal reason is that the industry is intrigued. In the face of a downturn in the market, most auto companies are not trying their best, but are taking the simplest approach anyone can think of—price cuts, hoping to drive up market share and bring about sales miracles. However, if you lower your prices, competitors will also follow suit; if you drop 10,000, your competitors will drop 15,000, or even decrease more than the cost reduction. As a result, sales in the month of price cuts soared, and then the effect of price cuts followed a parabolic decay until there was no pull on sales. At the same time, price cuts have also reduced consumer confidence. “The people are afraid to buy a car. Is there any hope for the auto market?†“Of course, I am not against the price reduction of cars. The key is to combine the price reduction with the confidence of the auto market.†Miao Wei said that the combination of Dongfeng is called “price recall". At the end of November, Dongfeng Peugeot 307 implemented price reduction compensation. Recently, Dongfeng Nissan announced its price commitment. All hope to restore consumer confidence. Our reporter Wang Zheng