Compact sedan market in China over the first three quarters of 2015

The Chinese sedan market as a whole has suffered negative growth over the past few years. The always competitive compact car segment has not been able to escape this market trend. According to statistics from Gasgoo.com (Chinese), a total of 4.93 million compact sedans were sold in the country over the first three quarters of the year. That figure is 7.2% lower than the over 5.3 million sold over the first three quarters of 2014. Compact sedans made up for 35.7% of all passenger automobiles sold over the first three quarters of the year, down 4.7 percent points from a year ago. This decline is due to increasingly diversifying consumer preferences, with many buyers of second vehicles choosing to purchase SUVs.

German brands continue to lead the compact sedan market. A total of 1.49 million German compact sedans were sold from January to September, down 6.1% from the previous year. Meanwhile, a total of 1.08 million domestic own brand sedans were sold over the same period of time, down 8.5% from the previous year. Sales of American, Korean and French branded compact sedans also fell, respectively decreasing 7.5%, 29.4% and 12.9% year-on-year.

Not all sales figures were discouraging. Japanese compact sedans as a whole saw their sales grow, increasing 14.6% from 706,050 units sold over the first three quarters of last year to 809,441 units sold over the first three quarters of this year. Japanese brands make up 16.4% of all compact sedans sold in the country, down 3.1 percent points from the previous year.

The Volkswagen Lavida was the best-selling compact sedan of the first three quarters of the year. It was followed by the Nissan Bluebird Sylphy, VW Santana, VW Jetta, VW Sagitar, Buick Excelle, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra, Toyota Corolla and Chevrolet Cruze.

The two Japanese models making the top ten chart, the Nissan Bluebird Sylphy and Toyota Corolla, not only performed strongly in terms of sales, they also both managed to achieve positive year-on-year sales growth rates. The Bluebird Sylphy’s increased a slight 8.6% to 219,402 units. Meanwhile, the Corolla’s sales grew a commendable 71.2%, with a total of 170,213 units sold over three quarters of the year. The Corolla has benefited a great deal from its new update, with the model topping monthly sales charts several times this year.

The Buick Excelle is another top-seller which was able to achieve positive year-on-year sales growth, with a total of 191,609 units sold over the first three quarters of the year, up a slight 3.4% from 2014. The Excelle has performed especially strongly in the months of August and September, when it placed a high on the sales charts.

The two other American models making the sales chart were the Ford Focus and Chevrolet Cruze. However, unlike the Excelle, the Focus and Cruze both saw their sales fall, respectively decreasing 37.4% and 10.9% year-on-year. A great deal of the Focus’ lost sales were recouped by another Ford model, the Escort.

The VW Lavida continues to lead the sales charts, albeit having seen its sales fall from last year. A total of 265,451 Lavidas were sold over the first three quarters of the year, down 9.1% from 2014. Sales of other top-selling VW models, the Santana, Jetta and Sagitar, also decreased.