Summary: Chinese passenger automobile market in October

As Chinese automobile sales continue to increase, competition in the market is growing increasingly fiercer. Looking at October's market performance, several major changes were evident. Shanghai GM's top position in the monthly passenger automobile sales charts was taken by FAW Volkswagen, while SAIC-GM-Wuling and Great Wall made some impressive strides forward, with the latter finally reversing its months-long sales decline.

FAW-VW was October's best performing passenger automobile manufacturer by sales. It was followed in succession by Shanghai GM, Shanghai VW, Beijing Hyundai, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Dongfeng Nissan, Changan, Changan Ford, Great Wall and Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën.

FAW-VW's sales totaled 146,500 passenger automobiles, representing year-on-year growth of six percent. The manufacturer's monthly sales volume is around 50,000 sales above those of number two and number three Shanghai GM and Shanghai VW, whose sales were very close to each other.

Among the second-tier camp, SAIC-GM-Wuling's performance was especially outstanding. The joint venture's 89,100 vehicle sales are just 2,500 short of long-term number four performer Beijing Hyundai. 60,500 of the JV's sales come from its popular Wuling Hongguang. Meanwhile, sales of the new Baojun 630 are continuing to increase dramatically to the 25,500 vehicles sold in October.

Dongfeng Nissan, which performed very-well a year ago, has only managed to sell 85,500 automobiles this October, representing a year-on-year decline of 6.4 percent.

Another exceptional performance was Great Wall's, which has not appeared on the monthly sales charts for half a year now. October also marks the first month this year that Great Wall achieved positive year-on-year sales growth. The manufacturer's monthly sales totaled 61,500 units, representing year-on-year growth of 8.6 percent. Great Wall's SUV-centric strategy has been attributed as a major factor behind its decline over the past few months. The manufacturer continues to rely on its Haval H6 and Haval H2 SUVs, whose sales this month totaled 30,400 units and 11,700 units, respectively.

Changan Automobile and Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën also posted strong year-on-year sales rates of 45.7 percent and 27.1 percent respectively. These sales growth rates have been attributed to the popularity of new models. Meanwhile, Changan Ford's sales in October were a slight 1.6 percent than they were a year ago.

Looking at its cumulative sales performances for the first ten months of the year, FAW-VW led the ratings, followed by Shanghai VW, Shanghai GM, Beijing Hyundai, Dongfeng Nissan, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Changan Ford, Changan Automobile, Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën and Dongfeng Yueda Kia.