Summary: Sales of Chinese-made foreign brand passenger automobile market in July

Foreign brands are continuing to perform strongly in the Chinese passenger automobile market, with their sales growth rate in July still above the industry average. Their combined market share is also continuing to increase, much to the dismay of own brand manufacturers. According to statistics compiled by Gasgoo.com (Chinese), a total of 885,900 foreign branded domestically manufactured passenger automobiles were sold in the country this July; 10.5 percent than the 801,400 sold in July 2013. July also marked the first month that foreign brands' market share broke the 70 percent mark, up 0.3 percent from the previous year.

German brands led their rivals from other countries in both sales volumes and sales growth rates last month. A total of 275,300 German brand passenger automobiles were sold in July, up 16.6 percent from the 236,200 automobiles sold a year ago. A major portion of this growth came from Volkswagen's new product strategies this year, which saw the successful introduction of new members to the Passat, Magotan, Sagitar and Santana product lines.

July sales growth of US and Japanese brand passenger automobiles sales were both around 10 percent. A total of 184,400 American branded automobiles were sold over the course of the month, while Korean automobile sales totaled 113,500 units.

On the other end of the spectrum, sales of Japanese brands fell dramatically from last year. Last July, 215,500 Japanese brand automobiles were sold; this year only 208,100 were sold, representing a year-on-year decrease of 3.4 percent. Two of the big three Japanese manufacturers, Nissan and Honda, reported that sales of their domestically manufactured vehicles fell 17.4 percent and 21.7 percent, respectively. Toyota was the only major Japanese manufacturer to maintain positive sales growth; the manufacturer sold a total of 81,700 domestically-made automobiles over the course of the month, up 13.7 percent from a year ago.

VW (including Audi) remained the best selling foreign automobile brand in China in July, followed by Hyundai-Kia, GM, Toyota, Nissan, Ford, PSA, Toyota, BMW and Mazda.

VW's sales of 275,300 automobiles in the country were more than those of Hyundai and GM combined. The amount was 16.6 percent higher than the 236,200 automobiles it sold a year ago. By comparison, Hyundai and GM's growth rates were 10.3 percent and 52 percent, respectively.

PSA and Mazda's sales growth rates were the highest among the top ten manufacturers, with both exceeding the 50 percent mark. The two manufacturers reported respective year-on-year sales growth rates of 53.5 percent and 52.9 percent for their Chinese passenger automobile sales. This rapid growth was attributed to the introduction of several new models, including the Citroën Elysée, Citroën DS5, Peugeot 301, Peugeot 2008, Mazda3 Axela, Mazda6 Atenza, Mazda CX-5 and Mazda CX-7.

Toyota, Ford and BMW also reported year-on-year growth rates that were above the market average. The three manufacturers' sales grew 13.7 percent, 18.9 percent and 26.3 percent, respectively.

As mentioned above, both Nissan and Toyota saw their sales decline from last July, falling 17.4 percent and 21.7 percent, respectively.