Foreign-brand SUV sales in September

A total of 579,979 SUVs were sold in China during the month of September, according to statistics compiled by Gasgoo.com (Chinese). That figure represents year-on-year growth of 62.8%. While both domestic own brand manufacturers and Sino-foreign joint venture enterprises achieve positive growth in terms of SUV sales, results did vary. While sales of own brand SUVs grew a fully 72.4% year-on-year, those of foreign brand SUVs increased slightly less, growing 53.4% year-on-year. A total of 275,185 foreign brand SUVs were sold in the country over the course of the month. Not only did growth rates fail to meet the market average, the proportion of SUV sales that were of foreign brand models fell to 47.4%, down 3 percentage points from last year.

Japanese brands continue to lead other foreign brands in terms of SUV sales with impressive sales growth in September. A total of 100,467 Japanese brand SUVs were sold over the course of the month, representing year-on-year growth of 87.3%. Japanese brands were the only foreign brand to achieve SUV sales growth rates exceeding the market average.

Growth of German brand SUVs was very low, with monthly growth rates only reaching as high as 24.1%. A total of 58,463 German brand SUVs were sold over the course of the month. While monthly sales of French brand SUVs were a low 18,098 units and year-on-year growth at 36%, the cumulative year-on-year growth rate for French brand SUVs for the first three quarters of the year was a commendable 80.9%. Year-on-year growth rates for Korean and American brand SUVs in September was around 40%.

Japanese brands made up the majority of entries among the top ten best-selling foreign brand SUVs for the month of September. The VW Tiguan continued to lead the monthly charts, followed by the Honda CR-V, Nissan X-Trail, Buick Envision, Honda XR-V, Toyota RAV4, Ford Kuga, Honda Vezel, Audi Q5 and Hyundai ix25. These ten models combined accounted for 142,405 SUV sales, making up 51.7% of all foreign brand SUV sales made during the month.

The VW Tiguan’s strong performance not only enabled it to lead the charts for foreign brand SUV models, it also made it the third-best selling SUV in the country overall, surpassed only by Great Wall’s Haval H6 and SAIC-GM-Wuling’s Baojun 560. A total of 22,638 Tiguans were sold in September, representing year-on-year growth of 11.5%.

The Tiguan was immediately followed by the popular Honda CR-V, whose monthly sales over doubled from last September. While 17,712 CR-Vs were sold this September, ales of the CR-V last September failed to pass the 10,000 mark. However the CR-V’s cumulative year-on-year growth rate for the first three quarters of the year was a negative 15.1%.

The X-Trail was the third-best selling foreign brand SUV of the month. Its sales increased 32.9% from last September. A total of 110,188 X-Trails have been sold over the first three quarters of the year combined, representing positive year-on-year growth of 46.6%.

The Buick Envision and Honda XR-V were close behind with monthly sales volumes totaling 14,693 units and 12,821 units, respectively. Considering the two vehicles were new models, the sales result was very commendable. Another new model was the Honda Vezel, whose monthly sales totaled 11,721 units, also very respectable.

The only luxury SUV to make the sales chart was the Audi Q5, whose sales totaled 10,491 units, up 13.4% from the 9,253 units sold last September.