Chinese passenger automotive market in July

Due to a combination of economic factors as well as the recent stock market crash, automotive sales have fallen in July. According to statistics from Gasgoo.com (Chinese), a total of 1.21 million passenger automobiles were sold over the course of the month, down 5.8% from the 1.28 million automobiles sold last July. These negative overall market trends are even more evident when looking at sales growth rates of automotive manufacturing enterprises.

According to statistics, FAW Volkswagen was the most successful automotive enterprise in terms of sales in July. It was followed by Shanghai VW, Shanghai GM, SAIC-GM-Wuling, FAW Toyota, Dongfeng Nissan, Beijing Hyundai, Changan Ford, Changan Automobile and Guangqi Honda.

The big three manufacturers have all suffered sales declines of over 20%. FAW-VW, which leads the charts with monthly sales of 100,858 units, has seen its sales fall 29.1% from the 142,299 units sold last July. Sales of Shanghai VW and Shanghai GM, whose monthly sales totaled 99,703 units and 94,587 units, fell 25.1% and 21.4%, respectively.

Looking at cumulative sales results for the period of time between January and July, Shanghai VW’s sales totaled 1.04 million automobiles. The joint venture was followed by FAW-VW and Shanghai GM, whose sales totaled 905,000 units and 883,700 units, respectively. If Shanghai VW can continue to ride this trend, it should easily be able to lead the rest of the passenger automotive market for the whole year of 2015. Shanghai VW has clearly benefited a great deal from the restructuring of its production line last year and the strong competitiveness of its products.

Both Beijing Hyundai and Changan Ford also saw their sales decrease in July. The former’s sales fell 32.4% to 54,160 units, while sales of the latter decreased 19.5% to 51,921 units. Beijing Hyundai and Changan Ford have slipped from fourth and fifth places in the monthly sales charts last July to seventh and eight places this July.

While half of the entries on the sales charts have seen their sales drop, the other half have managed to achieve positive sales growth. These include the three largest Japanese-affiliated enterprises: FAW Toyota, Dongfeng Nissan and Guangqi Honda. FAW Toyota, whose July sales totaled 62,333 units, has seen achieved sales growth of 13.3%, while those of Dongfeng Nissan’s grew 6.8% to 60,870 units. Guangqi Honda’s sales this July totaled 41,984 units, jumping a full 54.3% from a year ago.

Thanks to the success of new models, SAIC-GM-Wuling has skipped up to fourth place this year. The Sino-foreign JV’s sales in July totaled 66,445 units, up 14.3% from last year. SAIC-GM-Wuling has sold a total of 578,700 vehicles over the first seven months of the year, finishing just behind the big three of Shanghai VW, FAW-VW and Shanghai GM.

Despite maintaining positive sales growth of 8.3%, Changan Automobile has fallen down to ninth place this July. Its cumulative sales volume for the first seven months of the year totaled 571,200 units, just behind SAIC-GM-Wuling.