Sales performance of foreign brand SUVs in China from January to June of 2015

The Chinese SUV market has continued to achieve rapid growth over the first six months of the year. According to Gasgoo.com (Chinese), a total of 2.71 million SUVs were sold in the country from January to June, representing positive year-on-year growth of 48%. In particular, own brands’ were able to see their sales nearly double, growing 95.5%. By comparison, sales of foreign brand SUVs only increased 15.5%. A total of 1.25 million foreign brand SUVs, accounting for 46.4% of all SUVs sold in the country over the first half of the year, down 13 percentage points from the previous year.

None of the major SUV brands in China were able to match the segment’s overall growth rates. Among them, US brands performed relatively well, with a total of 256,469 American SUVs sold in the country over the first six months of the year, up 44.6% from the previous year. The new Buick Envision’s was credited for this strong performance. A total of 419,651 Japanese SUVs were sold during the six month time frame, up 8.7% from last year. By comparison, sales of German and Korean SUVs decreased, with sales of the latter falling 7.1%. Combined sales volumes of German and Korean SUVs totaled 281,155 units and 181,775 units, respectively.

The VW Tiguan was the best-selling foreign brand SUV model in China for the first half of 2015. It was followed by the Nissan X-Trail, Ford Kuga, Buick Envision, Honda CR-V, Audi Q5, Honda Vezel, Honda XR-V and Hyundai ix25. The ten above SUVs accounted for 52.1% of all foreign brand SUVs sold in the country.

The VW Tiguan’s total sales of 131,563 units were over 60,000 units above those of its nearest foreign brand competitor and made it the second-best selling SUV model overall. That figure represents slight positive year-on-year growth of 3.1%.

In second place was the Nissan X-Trail, whose sales total of 70,523 units represents full year-on-year sales growth of 87.3%, making it the best-selling Japanese SUV in the country.

The Honda CR-V has been unable to repeat previous successes this year, with its sales over the first half of the year decreasing 34.9% from the 95,022 units sold over the first half of this year to 61,813 units sold over the first half of this year. This decline in sales is due to a lack of revisions and upgrades for the model. Likewise, the Honda CR-V is perceived to the CR-V’s lack of advantages compared to newer models. By comparison, sales of two of Honda’s new SUVs, the Vezel and XR-V, performed very well, with their respective sales totaling 52,398 units and 49,949 units.

The two other new SUV models on the chart were the Buick Envision and Hyundai ix25, whose sales for the six month time period totaled 65,851 units and 47,901 units.

The Audi Q5 was the only luxury SUV to make the charts with total sales of 54,137 units, down 1.2% from last year. The Q5’s sales fell 14.7% in the month of June alone.

Whether or not Japanese brand SUVs continue to lead foreign brand SUVs into the latter half of the year remains to be seen.