New cars have been launched one after another, and sales are catching up with each other. "Carlyle", which is a match for the second-tier high-end car runner-up, can be said to be quite interesting. And the annual champion seems to be in the bag of Red Flag. In the first seven months of this year, Red Flag led with more than 170,000 cars, and it will continue to expand its lead in the future. At the same time, Lincoln is rushing to narrow the gap with other second-tier high-end brands. According to the current sales trend, Lincoln is expected to break through the 100,000 car mark in 2021.
On August 16, Lexus’ main model, the new ES, was officially launched, with a price range of 294,900 – 488,900 yuan, which was higher than the current price. "Old rival" Cadillac also chose to launch the new XT6 in August. Under the premise of upgraded configuration, the price of the new model is consistent with the old model, which is 392,700 – 552,700 yuan.
New cars have been launched one after another, and sales are also catching up with each other. "Carlyle", which is a match for the second-tier high-end car runner-up, can be said to be quite interesting. And the annual champion seems to be in the bag of Red Flag. In the first seven months of this year, Red Flag led with more than 170,000 cars, and it will continue to expand its lead in the future. At the same time, Lincoln is rushing to narrow the gap with other second-tier high-end brands; according to the current sales trend, Lincoln is expected to break through the annual sales of 100,000 cars in 2021.
Red Flag accumulates strength in the second half
On July 31, the Hongqi brand took the lead in announcing sales data. From January to July, Hongqi’s cumulative sales reached 170,600 vehicles, an increase of 95% year-on-year. According to the cumulative sales of 145,000 vehicles in the first half of the year, Hongqi’s sales in July reached 25,600 vehicles, an increase of 46.29% year-on-year.
Hongqi H9
In terms of different models, Hongqi H5 and HS5 are still responsible for sales, and the two models contributed nearly 80% of sales. Among them, Hongqi HS5 is "unique". The cumulative sales from January to July exceeded 82,000 vehicles, not only becoming a regular customer of the "10,000 club", but also successfully ranking among the top ten SUV sales in the country. In addition, the flagship model Hongqi H9 also played a stable role, with an average monthly sales of about 2,500 vehicles.
Entering 2021, the "lack of core" crisis made it difficult for many car companies to play a normal level, but it did not disrupt the rhythm of Hongqi’s "crazy output". Data show that in the first half of the year, Hongqi’s sales growth has remained in triple digits year-on-year. At the same time, Hongqi also pays special attention to communicating with customers and growing together. At the "2021 Hongqi Fan Festival" held on July 17, Hongqi announced that the number of Hongqi brand owners has exceeded 500,000, and July 17 was designated as the "Qishi Fan Festival".
With innovative marketing and a rich product lineage, Hongqi has won the second-tier high-end market sales championship this year.
But it is worth noting that as of now, Hongqi has only completed 42.65% of its annual sales target of 400,000 vehicles, which means that Hongqi needs to achieve an average monthly sales of 46,000 vehicles in the remaining 5 months. Such a challenging sales task makes us look forward to the second half of Hongqi.
"Carlyle" meets its opponents
According to the latest data released by the China Automotive Center, in July, Lexus sold 22,726 vehicles, surpassing Cadillac’s 19,993 vehicles, and the difference between the two sales was less than 3,000 vehicles.
A Cadillac 4S store in Beijing
Since the beginning of this year, Lexus has maintained a relatively strong development trend in the Chinese market. According to the import data released by the customs, Lexus imported 122,992 vehicles in the first half of this year, an increase of 26.6% year-on-year. Not only did it maintain the first place in the top ten brands of imported passenger cars, but it also surpassed Cadillac with a slight advantage of more than 4,000 vehicles.
Regarding the reason why Cadillac is temporarily lagging behind, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Passenger Association, analyzed and said, "Cadillac is mainly affected by the’lack of core ‘, which is related to the overall deployment of the general system." Some industry insiders also believe that although Lexus currently dominates in quantity, Cadillac’s cumulative growth rate is obviously better than Lexus, indicating that Cadillac has more strength. Considering the precedent of Cadillac’s successful "anti-kill" at the end of last year, the battle for the second-tier high-end runner-up is even more interesting.
Lincoln galloped
Compared with the aggressiveness of Red Flag and the "stickiness" of "Carlyle", Lincoln is rushing to narrow the gap with other second-tier high-end brands. Data show that Lincoln sold more than 7,700 vehicles in July this year, an increase of 36% year-on-year and 10% month-on-month. In July, Lincoln’s sales exceeded 7,700 vehicles, an increase of 36% year-on-year and 10% month-on-month. From January to July, Lincoln sold a total of 49,978 vehicles, an increase of 95% year-on-year, setting the best January-July sales record since the brand entered China.
Lincoln’s sales growth is mainly due to the success of localized models. Lincoln’s domestic SUV "Three Musketeers" – adventurers, aviators, and navigators have all made new breakthroughs. Among them, the new Lincoln Navigator has exceeded 2,000 units in a single month, an increase of 167% year-on-year. The success of domestic models has allowed Lincoln to quickly open up in the highly competitive second-tier premium car market. According to Lincoln’s current sales trend, it is expected to break through the 100,000 mark in 2021.
In comparison, Volvo’s sales in China are a little "Buddhist", and its sales have shown a steady upward trend following the development of the high-end market. In July, Volvo sold 14,520 vehicles in the Chinese mainland market, and a total of 109,599 vehicles were sold in the January-July period, an increase of 37% year-on-year.
Volvo XC40 pure electric version
It is worth mentioning that last month, Volvo Cars and its parent company Geely Holding Group signed an agreement to acquire the controlling stake of Geely in the Chinese joint venture between the two parties, thus fully integrating Volvo Cars’ manufacturing, research and development and sales operations in China. Hakan Samuelsson, CEO of Volvo Cars, said, "Through this agreement, Volvo Cars will become the first major foreign automaker to fully control its business in China." (Zhang Yi, China Economic Net reporter)