Data from the passenger association shows that the cumulative domestic passenger car retail sales in the first three quarters of 2024 were 15,574,300, up 2.2% year-on-year, of which new energy vehicle sales were 7,132,000, up 37.4% year-on-year. According to this calculation, the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the first three quarters was 45.8%, and the annual sales volume is expected to exceed that of fuel vehicles. It is understood that the tram has been three consecutive months penetration rate exceeded 50%, September new energy passenger car retail penetration rate of 53.3%.

Joint venture manufacturers are doing well? The size of the fuel car market, which has been shrinking under the strong attack of new energy vehicles, is a fait accompli, and the decline of the fuel car market is mainly due to the headline automakers, including FAW Volkswagen, Guangzhou Automobile Toyota, BMW Brilliance, Guangzhou Automobile Honda, Dongfeng Honda, etc., which have all fallen by more than 10%. Automotive Industry Concern has calculated the sales figures of the top 10 joint venture car companies in the first three quarters, and all of them have experienced a decline, of which the biggest decline is Honda, with both joint venture companies falling by more than 25%.

In terms of sales rankings, Volkswagen's sales ranked high, with SAIC-Volkswagen at 766,200 units, down 5.95% year-on-year, while FAW-Volkswagen at 663,300 units, down 10.16% year-on-year. The reason why FAW-Volkswagen's market is not as large as SAIC-Volkswagen's is because the Jetta and Audi brands are not taken into account. The data showed that six models of the Volkswagen brand exceeded 100,000 units, including 218,800 units of the Rangyi family, 170,800 units of the Sprint, 167,500 units of the Passat, 119,000 units of the Maiden, 108,800 units of the Tangyue and 105,500 units of the Touguan L, respectively.

FAW Toyota and GAC Toyota both declined. Although both are Toyota's joint ventures in China, the two companies performed quite differently, with GAC Toyota down 16.37 percent year-on-year and FAW Toyota down 8.42 percent year-on-year. According to retail data, in the first three quarters of Toyota in China, there are four models with sales of more than 100,000, respectively, the Frontier Lambda, Corolla Ravager, RAV4 Rongfang, Camry, with sales of 149,600, 130,800, 129,000, 105,400, respectively. Corolla, Camry, Rongfang, Hananda and other models in the market segment has been regarded as Toyota's strong areas, but in the context of the accelerated counterattack of independent brands against the joint venture brands, the competitiveness of these models in the key market segments is gradually weakening, the market performance is not as good as before.

Among the top 10 manufacturers, BBA, a luxury manufacturer, has also seen a decline. Although BMW Brilliance has a higher market share than Beijing Benz and FAW-Audi, BMW Brilliance has seen the biggest drop, with its first three-quarter sales slipping 13.31 percent year-on-year, higher than FAW-Audi's 10.32 percent, and higher than Beijing Benz's 6.30 percent. Entering 2024, BMW's sales in China have slumped well below the same period due to the replacement of the BMW 5 Series.

Since September, brands including Volkswagen, Toyota, General Motors and Ford have been competing to launch limited-time discounts and subsidy policies, with direct bite-sized prices in place. For example, a limited time 159,900 yuan from the new Passat 380TSI family, 169,800 yuan of the new RAV4 Rongfang, as well as a limited time 265,900 yuan from the new generation of Cadillac XT5, etc., compared to the old models are basically “price cuts to increase the allocation”.

Industry insiders say, is expected by 2030, China's fuel car market share will be further compressed, when the Chinese market will have three-quarters of the car for electric vehicles. For foreign brands, the most important thing is to ensure that the fuel car market share, while accelerating the transformation of electrification, focusing on product and technology innovation and upgrading. In the competitive environment of accelerated decline of fuel vehicles, to create a new growth curve of new energy is also the next strategic transformation of the joint venture car companies is the most important.