Severe Overcapacity Leads to Calls for Suspension of Weekly Sales Rankings by China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

China’s automotive industry is facing overcapacity issues, leading to fierce price wars among car manufacturers. On Tuesday (March 18th), the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) publicly called for an end to the external release of weekly sales rankings by car companies, in order to prevent exacerbating “internal vicious competition” and sparking heated debates online.

On March 18th, CAAM issued an “Initiative on Regulating the Release of Enterprise Data,” stating that in recent years, China’s automotive industry has accelerated its transformation towards electrification, intelligence, and networking, and has “achieved a leading edge” that was hard-earned and should be cherished by all sectors of the industry. Recently, some car companies have been frequently releasing weekly sales rankings that cannot represent market trends, with unclear data sources causing misinterpretation of public opinion, disrupting industry order, and intensifying “internal vicious” competition.

CAAM proposed that enterprises in the automotive industry cease publishing external sales weekly rankings to avoid fragmented information causing one-sided interpretations. Instead, companies should release their operational data in line with the industry’s operating rules, such as on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. In promoting fair competition, they should eliminate improper promotion, avoid using comparative statements, publishing rankings with correlations, prohibit creating vicious competition through denigration or comparison, and drive the industry from “data competition” to “service, value competition.”

This announcement immediately sparked lively discussions online.

Netizens commented: “We can’t just stop making cars, can we? Differences are what drive progress.” “Will everything cease to exist if they stop?” “It’s a bit of a shame that they won’t release the rankings anymore; I was looking forward to seeing the weekly lists.” “They just want to take advantage of information asymmetry.” “In the past two years, everything was fine, but as soon as a certain car company’s sales decline, the weekly rankings are banned. Quite a coincidence.” “Some car companies used to boast about their cumulative sales when they were doing well. Now that they are struggling, they ask others not to release rankings together.”

“The only reliable thing is the insurance volume list, if they stop that and let car companies do as they please, they will be openly against consumers.” “The monthly sales data is not calculated based on the insurance volume; many dealers can manipulate the numbers.” “Who would listen to CAAM?”

The Executive Director of Guangzhou Junding Investment Co., Ltd. “重之为势” commented, “Against internal vicious competition! CAAM proposes that car companies stop releasing external weekly sales rankings.”

China’s automotive industry is plagued by overcapacity issues, rampant internal competition among car companies, and brutal price wars. Since 2020, at least 35 car companies have halted production, with over 190,000 new energy cars becoming “unfinished products” due to difficulties in maintenance, inability to upgrade software, insurance companies refusing coverage, and other major issues.