Financial Services Association, March 12: The NEV market was cold in February. Judging from the report cards released by major NEV manufacturers, retail sales declined markedly in February, and some car companies even experienced a relatively rare month-on-month decline.

According to data from the Passenger Federation, retail sales in the domestic passenger car market in the narrow sense of the word reached 1.095 million units in February, down 21.0% year on year and 46.2% month on month. Meanwhile, sales of passenger cars in the narrow sense of energy were 388,000 units, down 11.6% year on year and 42.2% month on month. As can be seen, although sales of all types of passenger cars declined in February, whether year-on-year or month-on-month, the lowest decline was for new energy vehicles. At the same time, the report card of “cumulative sales volume of 1.559,000 units in the first 2 months, an increase of 37.5% over the previous year” is not impressive, but it is quite acceptable.

According to an analysis by the Passenger Federation, the main reasons for the sharp month-on-month and year-on-year decline in February were the differences in pre-holiday spending time due to Spring Festival factors; second, there was an overdraft of some sales volume in January, which affected sales before the Spring Festival in February; third, the price war heated up rapidly after the Spring Festival, forming a major wait-and-see trend; in addition, society's expectations for the introduction of policy rules in March all constituted an unfavorable sales trend in February.

In terms of specific brands, BYD continues to lead the way, with a market share of over 30% in the first two months. It maintained the lead with retail sales data of 118,802 vehicles, down 32.8% year on year and 42.6% month on month. Although the year-on-month decline was significant, judging from the report card of 325,700 vehicles in the first two months of this year, there was still a 2.9% growth rate compared to last year's 316,000 vehicles. At the same time, it achieved a record of over 300,000 vehicles, accounting for 30.8% of the market share, which is more than the sum of the two to five.

It is worth noting that apart from BYD, only 2 car companies sold more than 30,000 NEVs in February. Geely Auto is second in the list. The retail sales data for February was 31,364 vehicles, an increase of 43.9% year on year, but fell sharply from month to month. Tesla China, which is third in the list, had retail sales data of 30,141 vehicles in February, down 11.1% year on year and 24.4% month on month. Changan Motors and Great Wall Motors in the list also showed month-on-month losses.

The new forces that make cars are divided, and Cyrus “progresses” clearly. Cyrus reached the top five in the list for the first time. Following a year-on-year increase of 590.4% in January, Cyrus's retail sales record in February was 27,240 vehicles, a sharp increase of 673.6% over the previous year. According to the data, in the first two months, the Quanjie M7 sold more than 40,000 units. Driven by the popularity of the Zenjie M7, Cyrus became the brand with the biggest increase in retail sales. At the end of February, Wenjie Auto officially announced that the cumulative total of Wenjie M9 had reached 50,000 units. What can be expected is that due to the rise in the industry, the growth trend of Cyrus Motors is expected to continue.

A few companies are happy and a few are worried. Among the remaining new car builders on the list, apart from Ideal Auto maintaining year-on-year growth, GAC Aian and NIO Auto all experienced a month-on-month decline. Meanwhile, new-power car companies such as Nana and Zero Run have dropped out of the list for several months in a row.