China’s midsize sedan market in August

While SUV sales continue to increase in China, the sedan market has begun to recede as of late. According to statistics from Gasgoo.com (Chinese), a total of 763,831 sedans were sold in China in August, down 16.3% from last August. Many analysts look at the midsize segment as an indicator of future trends for the sedan market. Midsize sedan sales for the month totaled 158,898 units, down 2.5 percent from last year. However among sedan sales as a whole, the midsize segment’s total share grew 2.9 percentage points to 20.8%.

The Volkswagen Passat was the best-selling midsize model in August. It was followed by the Hyundai Mistra, VW Magotan, Audi A4, Toyota Camry, Buick Regal, Hyundai Sonata, Honda Accord, Nissan New Teana and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. Combined sales of these ten models totaled 100,188 units this month. The ten models account for 63.1% of all midsize sedan sales made in August.

Beijing Hyundai has been one of the best performing manufacturers in the midsize segment, with its sales increasing 47.8%. Its Mistra and Sonata models have performed especially strongly. With a total of 12,942 vehicles sold and sales growth of 23.7%, the Mistra soared to the number two spot in the sales chart. Meanwhile, the sales of the Sonata over doubled to 8,320 sales, ranking seventh in the sales charts.

Similar to Beijing Hyundai, VW’s monthly performance in the segment has been very strong. The VW Passat continues to lead the segment with total sales of 15,668 units, up 54.6% from last year. Meanwhile, the Magotan’s total sales of 11,961 units ranked it in the top three. However, when looking at cumulative sales results for the year as a whole, the story was a little bit different. Sales of the Passat and Magotan for the first eight months of the year combined were 10.1% and 31.1% less than respective figures from a year ago.

Sales performances for the best Japanese midsizes were mixed. The Honda Accord and Nissan New Teana both managed to achieve positive sales growth of 32.4% and 32.6%, respectively. By comparison, sales of the Toyota Camry fell 24.8% in August. Monthly sales of the Camry, Accord and New Teana totaled 8,500 units, 8,128 units and 8,127 units, respectively.

The Audi A4 and Mercedes C-Class continued to maintain strong performances in August. Monthly sales of the Audi A4 totaled 10,161 units, 30.3% from a year ago. Cumulative sales of A4s sold between January to August fell 5.4%. Sales of the C-Class over double, totaling 8,052 units. A total of 48,607 C-Class sedans was sold from January to August, over doubling from a year ago.

Sales of the best-selling American midsize model, the Buick Excelle, fell 10.6% from 9,313 units sold in last August to 8,329 units sold this August. The Buick LaCrosse’s sales fell 43.3% to just 4,075 units sold, falling out of the top ten sales chart.