China Association of Automobile Manufacturers: In February, national retail sales of passenger cars reached 1.386 million units, an increase of 26.0% year-on-year.

According to the data from the China Passenger Car Association, in February, the national retail sales of passenger cars reached 1.386 million units, an increase of 26.0% year-on-year but a decrease of 22.8% month-on-month. The cumulative retail sales from January to February this year reached 3.179 million units, an increase of 1.2% year-on-year. February's retail sales were at a historical high for the month, and January-February saw positive growth, demonstrating strong performance in the market. Due to the Spring Festival falling on January 29 in 2025, February of that year marked the beginning after the festival. With the gradual initiation of policies for scrappage and replacement updates in 2025, combined with car companies actively stabilizing price expectations, the overall price competition in the auto market was relatively mild compared to previous years. According to data from the China Passenger Car Association, the intensity of promotions in the passenger car market increased by 5.7 percentage points in 2023, slowed to 3.2 percentage points in 2024, and further weakened in January-February 2025. Particularly, the prices of fuel vehicles remained stable. Changes in the domestic and international macro environment in recent times have been better than expected, consumer consumption attitudes have been relatively stable, and with the sustained efforts of car manufacturers in their marketing activities during the Spring Festival period and the lower sales base in February last year, the auto market in February this year outperformed the sluggish trend post-Spring Festival in 2024, achieving a strong start after the 2025 Spring Festival. Before the festival, due to long-distance travel and temperature effects during the Spring Festival, consumers were more sensitive to the range and recharging of new energy vehicles, leading to a significant seasonal decline in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles. As consumers still had strong expectations for prices, some major manufacturers have significantly increased promotions for plug-in hybrid models recently, in combination with strong promotional campaigns for the "two news" subsidy policy. The appearance of DeepSeek in the Chinese AI field in 2025 had a significant impact on the global technology competition landscape. The success of DeepSeek challenged the traditional AI development model based on computational power stacking. With its characteristics of low computational power, low cost, and good performance, DeepSeek made it possible to quickly apply large-scale applications in car terminals. The government work report this year positioned intelligent networked new energy vehicles as the next generation of intelligent terminals, enhancing consumer guidance on concepts such as intelligent cabins and autonomous driving, with good results across the industry. With the impact of factors such as post-holiday resumption of work and warmer weather, consumer preferences have noticeably shifted, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has been rapidly increasing week by week, becoming a major driver of the post-holiday recovery in the passenger car market. Characteristics of the passenger car market in February 2025: 1. Wholesale and export by passenger car manufacturers in February reached historical highs, as manufacturers aimed to achieve strong sales momentum after the Spring Festival; 2. In January 2025, passenger car retail sales fell by 245,000 units year-on-year, but in February, they increased by 280,000 units year-on-year, achieving a positive growth of 1.2% in domestic retail sales from January to February 2025. 3. Price competition was relatively moderate, with promotions on traditional fuel vehicles at 21.7%, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points from the previous month. Promotions on plug-in hybrid models in non-direct sales models gradually reached a high of 12.5%, an increase of 1.6 percentage points from the previous month; 4. Self-owned brand passenger cars had a wholesale share exceeding 70% in February, and a domestic retail share exceeding 65%, an increase of about 11 percentage points from the previous year; 5. Circulation mentality trended towards stability in February 2025, with manufacturer inventories decreasing by 40,000 units, channel inventories increasing by 30,000 units, and an overall decrease of 10,000 units, compared to a total decrease of 170,000 units in manufacturer and channel inventories in the same period last year; 6. The domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles rebounded to 49.5%, driven by scrappage updates and trade-ins, leading to strong growth in new energy vehicles; 7. In January-February 2025, domestic fuel passenger car exports totaled 420,000 units from the same period last year, a 5% decrease, while exports of self-owned new energy vehicles increased by 111%, with new energy vehicles accounting for 35% of self-owned exports. In February, self-owned brand retail sales reached 910,000 units, an increase of 51% year-on-year but a decrease of 17% month-on-month. The domestic retail share of self-owned brands in February was 65.6%, an increase of 10.6 percentage points year-on-year. Self-owned brand wholesale market share in February was 71%, an increase of 12 percentage points from the same period last year; self-owned brands saw significant incremental growth in the new energy and export markets. Top traditional car manufacturers showed outstanding performance in transformation and upgrading, with an increase in market share for BYD Company Limited, GEELY AUTO, Chery Automobile, and SAIC-GM Wuling among others. Major joint venture brands had retail sales of 330,000 units in February, a decrease of 2% year-on-year and a decrease of 33% month-on-month. German brand retail share in February was 17%, a decrease of 4.3 percentage points year-on-year, while Japanese brand retail share was 10.7%, a decrease of 3.7 percentage points year-on-year. The market retail share of American brands reached 5%, a decrease of 1.4 percentage points year-on-year. Luxury car retail sales in February were 150,000 units, a decrease of 8% year-on-year and a decrease of 30% month-on-month. The luxury brand retail share in February was 10.8%, a decrease of 4 percentage points year-on-year, with traditional luxury car market retail share performing well. Exports: Overall automobile exports continued the strong growth trend from last year, reaching 970,000 units in January-February 2025, a 17% increase year-on-year. According to data from the China Passenger Car Association, passenger car exports (including complete vehicles and CKD) in February were 349,000 units, an 11% increase year-on-year but an 8% decrease month-on-month. Passenger car manufacturer exports in January-February totaled 730,000 units, a 6% increase year-on-year. New energy vehicles accounted for 33.9% of exports in February, an increase of 4.4 percentage points from the same period. Self-owned brand exports reached 310,000 units in February, a 27% increase year-on-year but a 1% decrease month-on-month; joint venture and luxury brand exports totaled 35,000 units, a 47% decrease year-on-year. Production: Passenger car production in February was 1.736 million units, a 38.7% increase year-on-year but a 17.4% decrease month-on-month. From January to February, passenger car production totaled 3.829 million units, a cumulative increase of 16.5% year-on-year. In February, passenger car production was only 6,000 units lower than the historical peak in the same period in 2017, considering the impact of the Spring Festival. Overall, production performance was strong, making a significant contribution to local economic growth. Luxury brand production in February decreased by 17% year-on-year and by 25% month-on-month; joint venture brand production increased by 10% year-on-year but decreased by 27% month-on-month; self-owned brand production increased by 66% year-on-year but decreased by 13% month-on-month. Wholesale: In February, passenger car manufacturers nationwide wholesaled 1.767 million units, a historical high for the month, an increase of 33.8% year-on-year but a decrease of 16.0% month-on-month.In February, the national wholesale of passenger cars reached 3.865 million, an increase of 12.7% year-on-year. Due to the promotion of reducing channel inventory, the wholesale growth rate of passenger cars in February was 8 percentage points higher than retail sales. In February, the wholesale of domestic car manufacturers reached 1.25 million, an increase of 60% year-on-year, but a decrease of 13% compared to the previous month. The mainstream joint venture car manufacturers wholesaled 360,000 vehicles in February, an 8% increase year-on-year, but a 19% decrease compared to the previous month. The wholesale of luxury cars reached 160,000 in February, a year-on-year decrease of 23%, and a 26% decrease compared to the previous month.February's performance of the main passenger car manufacturers' overall wholesale varies, with GEELY AUTO (00175), Chery Automobile, Chongqing Changan Automobile (000625.SZ), and others showing strong month-on-month performances. In February, there were a total of three passenger car manufacturers with sales of over 100,000 units (five in January, three at the same period last year), accounting for 39% of the overall market share. Among the 33 passenger car manufacturers with wholesale volumes of over 10,000 units, 10 showed positive growth compared to the previous month, with 5 of them showing growth of more than 10%. Manufacturers like GAC Honda, SAIC-GM Wuling, and GAC Aion showed relatively strong performance. Inventory: due to a strong push in wholesale by manufacturers in February, wholesale was 40,000 units higher than production, and monthly domestic wholesale was 30,000 units higher than retail sales. As a result, the overall domestic channel inventory of passenger cars increased by 30,000 units in February (a decrease of 100,000 units compared to the same period last year), leading to a wholesale growth rate significantly higher than retail sales by 8 percentage points. New Energy Vehicles: In February, the production of new energy passenger cars reached 819,000 units, an increase of 85.9% year-on-year but a decrease of 12.8% month-on-month; the cumulative production from January to February was 1.759 million units, up 48.1%. The wholesale sales of new energy passenger cars in February reached 830,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 79.6% but a decrease of 6.7% month-on-month; cumulative wholesale from January to February was 1.719 million units, up 48.0%. The domestic retail sales of new energy passenger cars in February were 686,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 79.7% but a decrease of 7.8% month-on-month; cumulative retail sales from January to February were 1.43 million units, up 35.5%. The export of new energy passenger vehicles by manufacturers in February was 118,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 27.8% but a decrease of 15.2% month-on-month; cumulative exports from January to February were 257,000 units, up 28.8%. 1) Wholesale: In February, the wholesale penetration rate of new energy vehicle manufacturers was 47.0%, an increase of 12 percentage points from February 2024. In February, the penetration rate of independent brand new energy vehicles was 62%; the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in luxury cars was 27%; and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in mainstream joint venture brands was only 3%. In February, the wholesale sales of pure electric vehicles were 478,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 69.6% but a decrease of 7.7% month-on-month; plug-in hybrid sales were 288,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 137.7% but a decrease of 3.1% month-on-month; extended-range sales were 63,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 7.4% but a decrease of 14%. In February's wholesale structure of new energy vehicles: pure electric vehicles accounted for 57.6%, plug-in hybrids 34.8%, and extended-range 7.6%, compared to February 2024 with 61% pure electric, 26% plug-in hybrids, and 13% extended-range. The wholesale structure of new energy vehicles in 2024 was 58% pure electric, 32% plug-in hybrids, 10% extended-range, and recently, plug-in hybrids have shown a significantly higher growth rate than extended-range vehicles. In February, the wholesale sales of B-class electric vehicles were 136,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 27%, a month-on-month decrease of 25%, accounting for 28% of the pure electric share. The A00+A0 level economy electric vehicle market performed well, with wholesale sales of 120,000 units in the A00 level, a year-on-year increase of 164% but a month-on-month increase of 3%, accounting for 25% of the pure electric share, an increase of 9 percentage points from the same period last year; wholesale sales of A0 level were 116,000 units, accounting for 24% of the pure electric share, a year-on-year increase of 3 percentage points; wholesale sales of Level A electric vehicles were 98,000, accounting for 20% of the pure electric share, a decrease of 2 percentage points year-on-year; sales of electric vehicles at all levels show differentiation, with a clear trend towards high-end consumer upgrading. In February, there were 10 models of passenger cars with wholesale sales exceeding 20,000 units (22 in the previous month), including BYD Company Limited Song (89,650 units), Seagull (41,223 units), Hongguang MINI (37,184 units), Xingyue (29,390 units), Geely Xingyuan (28,591 units), Xiaomi SU7 (23,728 units), Model3 (22,656 units), BYD Company Limited Qin (22,211 units), Bingyue (21,034 units), and QinL (20,222 units). Among them, new energy vehicles rank in the top three of the overall passenger car model sales, and post-Spring Festival models like Xingyue and Bingyue remain strong in the domestic market. 2) Retail: In February, the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles was 49.5%, an increase of 15 percentage points from the same period last year. In terms of domestic retail in February: the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in independent brands was 70%; the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in luxury cars was 23%; and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in mainstream joint venture brands was only 4%. Looking at the monthly domestic retail share, in February, the market share of mainstream domestic new energy vehicles increased by 4.4 percentage points to 73%; the market share of joint venture brand new energy vehicles decreased by 1.9 percentage points to 2.1%; new forces accounted for 19.9%, with brands like Xiaomi Auto driving an increase of 2.6 percentage points; Tesla's share was 3.9%, down 4 percentage points. 3) Export: In February, the export of new energy passenger vehicles was 118,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 27.8% but a month-on-month decrease of 15.2%. It accounted for 33.9% of passenger car exports, an increase of 4.4 percentage points from the same period last year; pure electric vehicles accounted for 59% of new energy exports (84% in the previous year), with A0+A00 level pure electric vehicles as the core focus accounting for 50% of new energy exports (31% in the previous year). With the emergence of the scale advantage of Chinese new energy brands and the expansion of market demand, more Chinese-made new energy products are entering the international market and gaining recognition overseas. Although recently facing some disturbances from external countries, the development of exports of independent plug-in hybrids to developing countries is growing rapidly, showing promising prospects. Excellent enterprises in new energy vehicle exports in February were: BYD Company Limited (67,025 units), Chery Automobile (11,100 units), GEELY AUTO (5,124 units), SAIC-GM Wuling (4,552 units), Chongqing Changan Automobile (4,266 units), SAIC passenger cars (4,154 units), Tesla China (3,911 units), Volvo Asia-Pacific (3...SAIC Motor (5,417 vehicles), Dongfeng Motor (2,607 vehicles), Xiaopeng Motors (2,502 vehicles), Great Wall Motor (1,861 vehicles), LEAPMOTOR (1,616 vehicles), XPENG Motors (1,504 vehicles), GAC Aion (1,133 vehicles), ZHIMADA Motors (973 vehicles), Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock (448 vehicles), NIO Motors (364 vehicles), FAW Hongqi (350 vehicles), Dongfeng Honda (300 vehicles), Jiangling Motors Corporation (172 vehicles), SAIC Datong (133 vehicles), Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp., Ltd. (121 vehicles), BMW Brilliance (104 vehicles), Kia Yueda (103 vehicles). Other new energy vehicle exports from other companies also have a certain scale. Monitoring overseas market retail data from independent brand exports shows that A0-class electric vehicles accounted for nearly 50% at one point, and were the absolute main force in independent exports. SAIC and other independent brand small electric vehicles performed well in Europe in the early stages, but have recently been affected by corresponding tax measures, which also reflects the fact that small micro electric vehicles are the core of competition in the world of electric vehicles. It is urgent to guide the development of small electric vehicles with financial and tax policies and supporting policies such as the C7 driving license, to encourage the development of small micro electric vehicles, so that Chinese electric vehicles can sustainably move towards the world. As a category of fuel vehicles corresponding to pure electric zero-carbon vehicle models, independent plug-in hybrid vehicle models are increasingly prominent in overseas fuel vehicle market competition, relying on their advantages of low fuel consumption and long cruising range. However, fuel vehicles are the main export models overseas and there is an urgent need for stable export of small fuel vehicles.4) Auto Companies: In February, the overall trend of new energy passenger car companies was strong, with BYD Company Limited solidifying its leading position in the independent brand of new energy with pure electric and plug-in hybrid dual-drive systems; companies represented by BYD Company Limited,GEELY AUTO, and Chery Automobile showed sustained strong performance in narrow plug-in hybrids. In terms of product delivery, with the implementation of the "multi-pronged approach" strategy of independent car companies in the new energy route, the market base continued to expand, with 15 manufacturers breaking the monthly wholesale sales volume of new energy passenger cars exceeded 10,000 vehicles (an increase of 5 compared to the same period last year and an increase of 1 compared to the previous month), accounting for 92% of the total new energy passenger cars (92% last month, 77% in the same period last year). Among them, BYD Company Limited (318,233 vehicles), GEELY AUTO (98,433 vehicles), SAIC-GM-Wuling (55,319 vehicles), Chery Automobile (40,053 vehicles), Chongqing Changan Automobile (35,207 vehicles), Tesla China (30,688 vehicles), Xiaopeng Motors (30,453 vehicles), Ideal Automobile (26,263 vehicles), LEAPMOTOR (25,287 vehicles), Xiaomi's automobile (23,728 vehicles), Dongfeng Automobile (18,802 vehicles), Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock (16,504 vehicles), Great Wall Motor (15,105 vehicles), GAC Aion (14,482 vehicles), NIO (13,192 vehicles). 5) New Forces: In February, the new forces retail market share was 19.9%, an increase of 2.6 percentage points year-on-year. The domestic retail sales of passenger cars in China exceeded 10,000 vehicles for BYD Company Limited (205,711 vehicles), GEELY AUTO (93,309 vehicles), Chongqing Changan Automobile (44,405 vehicles), SAIC-GM-Wuling (40,579 vehicles), Xiaopeng Motors (27,951 vehicles), Tesla China (26,777 vehicles), Ideal Automobile (26,263 vehicles), Chery Automobile (25,584 vehicles), Xiaomi's automobile (23,728 vehicles), LEAPMOTOR (22,064 vehicles), Hongmeng Zhixing (215,17 vehicles), GAC Aion (19,785 vehicles), Dongfeng Automobile (18,770 vehicles), Great Wall Motor (13,244 vehicles), NIO (13,192 vehicles). The new energy of mainstream self-owned car companies is becoming stronger, with BYD Company Limited, GEELY AUTO, Chongqing Changan Automobile, and SAIC-GM-Wuling performing well in domestic new energy retail. 6) Traditional Hybrid: In February, wholesale sales of conventional hybrid passenger cars reached 53,000 vehicles, an increase of 24% year-on-year, and a decrease of 27% month-on-month. Among them, FAW Toyota (21,589 units), GAC Toyota (20,483 vehicles), Changan Ford (3,138 vehicles), Dongfeng Honda (2,933 vehicles), GAC Honda (2,202 vehicles), Dongfeng Automobile (1,401 vehicles), GAC Trump (869 vehicles), Dongfeng Nissan (507 vehicles), GEELY AUTO (281 vehicles), Jiangsu Yetda Kia (28 vehicles), the sales of independent brand hybrid cars gradually increased. Outlook for the National Passenger Car Market in March 2025 There are 21 working days in March 2025, the same as in March of the previous year. As various industries quickly resume normal operations after the Spring Festival holiday, the month-on-month production and sales growth in March is expected to be rapid. The period after the Spring Festival is an important time for the launch of new products, with many manufacturers launching a large number of new cars. With the promotion of national consumption policies, many provinces and cities have introduced corresponding consumption promotion policies, and the full resumption of offline activities such as car shows will also accelerate the gathering of popularity. Due to the recent low prices of materials such as carbonate lithium, it is conducive to manufacturers continuously optimize the cost structure and product iteration of new energy vehicles, and the attention to the automobile market will continue to rise. In 2025, the policy subsidies and incentives in the automotive industry reached a new high, becoming a key factor in driving the overall prosperity of the automotive market and accelerating the transition of new energy consumption to the mass popularization stage. The scope of the scrap policy has expanded, with an estimated 5 million vehicles expected to be scrapped and updated this year, with a scrap subsidy amount of approximately 90 billion yuan, and each region's replacement policy remains stable and forceful, with an estimated replacement of 10 million vehicles and nearly 130 billion yuan. At the same time, the production and sales of new energy vehicles this year are expected to reach around 16 million vehicles, bringing in sales of over 2 trillion yuan; 2025 is the last year of the policy exemption for vehicle purchase tax. With the current scale of the new car sales market, it is estimated that approximately 200 billion yuan in tax exemption benefits can be released. In total, this amounts to over 400 billion yuan, which, compared to the 5 trillion yuan in total sales of automobiles, the strength of the 400 billion yuan subsidy is indeed rare in history and is considered to be of an extraordinarily strong level of support for the development of the auto market. Due to the drastic changes in the external environment and the emergence of unexpected diversification, this is conducive to the continued stable consumption trend. Therefore, it is expected that the sales of passenger cars in China in March 2025 will maintain strong growth, with new energy vehicles becoming the main driver, while the traditional fuel vehicle market will continue to decline. "Policy support, technological progress, and consumer upgrading" will be the key factors driving market development. Against the background of Chinese brands going global, reducing discriminatory policies against fuel vehicles and achieving "strong in both oil and electricity" will play a better role in stabilizing domestic and international automobile market sales and promoting the steady upgrading of the supply chain.