Caixin reported on September 19th (Reporter: Xu Hao) With the gradual effects of the central scrappage and upgrade policy, combined with the gradual implementation of local and corporate replacement and upgrade subsidy policies, the traditional 'Golden September, Silver October' sales season in the automotive market is booming. The latest data from the China Passenger Car Association shows that from September 1st to 15th, the retail sales of passenger vehicles reached 0.828 million units, an 18% year-on-year increase, and a 12% increase from the previous month; the retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 0.445 million units, a 63% year-on-year increase, and a 12% increase from the previous month. In the second week of September, the daily average retail sales of passenger vehicles reached 0.063 million units, a 26% year-on-year increase from the same period last September, and an 18% increase from the previous month, achieving double-digit growth.

"Our internal market forecasting team revealed that the pre-month forecast for the passenger vehicle market in August was optimistic at 63%, and the post-month satisfaction evaluation in early September reached 67%. Currently, the optimism for the September market has reached 93%, marking the highest market optimism in recent times." The China Passenger Car Association stated on September 19th that the national introduction of scrappage and upgrade policies, and the further undertaking of around 90% of the scrappage and upgrade subsidy funds, are very good demonstrations of consumption promotion, guiding localities to advance corresponding old-for-new incentive policies and timely enact implementation rules.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, journalists from Caixin visited several large-scale car experience stores located in Beijing's major shopping malls and found that many consumers were attracted by the current replacement subsidy policy, making special trips during the holiday to test drive and purchase new cars.

"We will try to accommodate the needs of users, but because these days have been extremely busy, we hope users can choose off-peak times for test drives." A Tesla salesperson told the journalist that the number of users visiting the store to view cars has recently surged, and due to strong demand for the Tesla Model 3, the delivery time has been extended from 3-5 weeks to 4-6 weeks.

According to the national car scrappage subsidy policy, the subsidy for purchasing a new energy passenger car has been increased from 0.01 million yuan to 0.02 million yuan, and the subsidy for scrapping a qualified old car and purchasing a passenger car with a displacement of 2.0 liters or less has been increased from 7000 yuan to 0.015 million yuan. Ministry of Commerce data on September 18th revealed that during the 2024 Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, the national consumption market presented various highlights, with ample supply and stable prices in essential goods markets.MergerThe effects of the old-for-new policy are evident, with the Ministry of Commerce's automobile old-for-new information platform receiving over 1.04 million subsidy applications, driving new car sales of approximately 130 billion yuan.

While the policy end continues to exert effort, some brands and dealers have also launched limited-time promotional activities to further heat up the car market. On September 13th, SAIC Volkswagen launched the autumn promotion, offering limited-time fixed-price discounts on multiple car models and providing up to 0.035 million yuan in old-for-new subsidies. "The comprehensive discounts for some models can reach 60% off." Sales personnel from Guangzhou Honda 4S store also stated that the comprehensive discounts include trade-in and installment, taking Jipai 2 as an example, in addition to enjoying Beijing's trade-in subsidy of 0.02 million yuan, they can also enjoy Guangzhou Honda's trade-in subsidy of 0.01 million yuan, with a comprehensive discount of 0.03 million yuan.

In addition to the joint venture brands in the Volkswagen market, Audi, one of the BBA brands, launched a promotion in September, which includes a trade-in subsidy of 0.042 million yuan for imported gasoline cars and a trade-in subsidy of 7,000 yuan for domestic gasoline cars and Q4 e-tron pure electric SUVs. As for independent brands, Geely has launched a limited-time promotion in September, which includes the latest Geely preferential policies for the purchase of 2025 Emperor, Star Yue L, Star Rui, Bo Yue L and other models, with a maximum trade-in subsidy of 0.047 million yuan; BYD's Haima.com trade-in subsidy also reaches 0.01 million yuan, combined with the national car scrapping policy, the maximum subsidy can reach 0.03 million yuan.

"September has a total of 21 working days, one more day than last year. Since the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on September 17th this year, there is no early vacation at the end of September, so the effective sales time in September is longer." The latest analysis by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) shows that the effect of the "Gold September" this year will be more prominent, which is conducive to increasing sales.