According to the data released by China Automobile Circulation Association, China imported 592000 cars in the first eight months of this year, down 12.3% year on year; The import amount was 240.56 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 0.7%. The import amount not only reversed the downward trend, but also achieved a slight growth. The import vehicle market showed a trend of stabilization and recovery.

In terms of terminal demand, in the first eight months of this year, 517000 imported vehicles were sold in China, a year-on-year decrease of 21.8%, and a year-on-year decrease of 5% in August. The decline was significantly narrowed compared with the previous year, and even slightly increased month on month. The Circulation Association said that the improvement of the overall domestic automobile market consumption environment has driven the consumption of imported cars and high-end cars.

From the perspective of both supply and demand, China's import garage inventory has increased this year. The data shows that in the first eight months, the import volume of China's imported vehicles decreased by 12.3%, while the sales volume decreased more, reaching 21.8%. The difference between the purchase and sales of 74700 vehicles further boosted the industry inventory. As of August 2022, the depth of China's imported vehicle inventory (including channels, in transit and manufacturers) has climbed to 3.8 months, which is at a relatively high level.

From the historical data, the inventory of China's imported vehicle industry has increased year by year in the past three years. The inventory depth in 2020 and 2021 is 2.5 months and 3.1 months respectively. However, the circulation association said that in the past three months, the storage depth of China's imported garages has shown a downward trend.

Luxury brands have always been the focus of the imported car market, and the increasing customs declaration unit price has also confirmed this feature. From 2015 to 2022, the customs declaration unit price of imported automobiles in China will rise from 252100 yuan to 406000 yuan, breaking through the 400000 yuan mark. The Circulation Association believes that consumption upgrading, localization of low-cost products and the devaluation of the RMB exchange rate have all pushed up the customs declaration price to a certain extent.

Because of this, even though the overall decline of imported vehicles, the super luxury models with more than 2 million yuan still achieved a positive growth of 11% in August, with 908 vehicles sold; The cumulative sales of 5943 vehicles in the first eight months, up 6.89% year on year, rebounded significantly. In contrast, the sales volume of luxury models in August decreased by 6.53% year on year, but the sales volume still accounted for the highest proportion, reaching 93.11%; The cumulative sales volume in the first eight months reached 465700. In addition, non luxury models also achieved a positive growth of 9.53% in August, but still fell by 24.50% to 45155 in cumulative terms.

In terms of specific brands, Lexus, Mercedes Benz and BMW respectively occupy the top three. Lexus ranked first, with 124886 cars sold in the first eight months, 111499 cars sold by Mercedes Benz in the second place, and 74727 cars sold by BMW in the third place. However, the year-on-year data of the three declined by 24.8%, 8.6%, and 34.7% respectively. In addition, Audi's decline was as high as 45.0%. According to the analysis of the Circulation Association, the decline of BMW and Audi was mainly caused by the domestic production of BMW X5 and Audi A7.

Among the top ten brands of imported vehicles, Porsche and Toyota both achieved a positive growth of 2.2%. According to the Circulation Association, Porsche's growth comes from the improvement of product competitiveness and brand strength, while Toyota mainly benefits from the recovery of parallel imports. At the same time last year, parallel import business was basically stagnant due to the impact of policies, and this year saw growth after recovery.

From the perspective of model structure, in the first eight months, cars, SUVs and MPVs all declined, of which MPV declined by 4.9%, the lowest. The Circulation Association believes that some MPV models are the main force of parallel imports, so their sales are relatively strong after the supply of parallel imports resumes. In contrast, the decline of cars and SUVs reached 14.1% and 21.3%, but they have narrowed by 13.3% and 1% respectively compared with the previous July, and the downward trend has been reversed.