Foreign brand SUVs’ sales performance in April

A total of 610,776 SUVs were sold in China in the month of April, according to statistics compiled by Gasgoo.com (Chinese). The figure represents year-on-year sales growth of 30.7%, continuing the upward trend from the previous months.

Own brands continued to dominate the SUV segment in April, followed in succession by Japanese, German, Korean and American SUV sales. Honda brand SUVs continue to be a major driver for Japanese manufacturers’ strong performance in the small SUV segment.

Other foreign-affiliated manufacturers have been unable to keep up with Honda’s stellar performance in the small SUV segment. Dongfeng Honda’s XR-V and Guangqi Honda’s Vezel, which were the two best-selling small SUV models of the month, ranked far ahead of their closest foreign brand competitors, the Hyundai ix25 and Citroën C3-XR. This discrepancy was mainly due to the superior features and competitive pricing of Honda’s models. Other foreign models like the Ford Kuga, Buick Envision and Chevrolet Trax have lost a lot of popularity due to lack of recent product updates.

Japanese brands also performed strongly in the quarterly SUV sales charts, with six of the best-selling SUVs of the timeframe being Japanese brand models. Two German models also made the chart, with the previous sales leader, the VW Tiguan, stumbling down to second place as its sales fall 11.3% year-on-year. The sales decline is due in large part to the fact that the Tiguan hasn’t undergone a major redesign in several years, leading to a perceived lack of competiveness. On the other hand, the new sales leader, the Buick Envision (pictured below), managed to post impressive year-on-year sales growth of 68.3%. This increased popularity is attributed to its major redesign last year. The 2.0 L turbocharged six-speed AT version in particular is seen as superior to its competitors in terms of performance, comfort and roominess.

Also performing strongly was Dongfeng Nissan’s Qashqai (pictured below), whose sales nearly doubled in April, making it the fastest growing model of the month. Last year the Qashqai suffered from its aging design and lack of model revision, with its monthly sales for the year averaging around 5,000 units. Nissan has picked up on this trend by reinstating a major redesign based on Renault and Nissan’s jointly-developed CMF modular architecture system, which has greatly improved the model’s ride performance. The redesigned Qashqai, which was released in October 2016, has been lauded for its suspension redesign, whose more sporty ride is closer to European models. The Qashqai has also been eligible for purchase tax subsidies, which has only further increased the model’s popularity and competiveness in the model.