July vehicle sales of Chinese mainstream automakers

Statistics showed that SAIC Motor still was far ahead of most automakers in both July sales and Jan-July sales. Dongfeng Motor Group, Changan Automobile, Great Wall Motor all encountered apparent year-on-year drop in terms of their July sales. Geely Auto still maintained a blooming sales momentum. It is noteworthy that JAC Motors achieved a positive year-on-year increase after facing sales downturn for consecutive several months.

SAIC Motor

Chinese state-owned automaker SAIC Motor posted a year-on-year sales growth of 6.4% with 483,726 vehicles delivered in July. Meanwhile, the automaker's Jan-July sales amounted to 4,003,744 units, climbing 10.3% compared with the same period in previous year.

SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling occupied the first three places among the group's subsidiaries by their July sales. Apart from SAIC-GM and Sunwin Bus whose July sales dropped over a year ago, the other subsidiaries all attained positive year-on-year increase. SAIC-CP saw its sales skyrocket 342.5% and 127.4% from the previous year in terms of its July sales and year-to-date sales, enjoying the biggest sales growth among all subsidiaries. With respect to the cumulative sales, the top 3 companies were SAIC-GM-Wuling, SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC-GM.

SAIC Motor PV witnessed its July sales jump 29.8% year on year to 48,110 units. Driven by the strong performance of the Roewe RX Series, the MG6 and the Roewe ERX5, the Jan-July sales of the SAIC Motor's self-owned subsidiary soared 50.4% from a year earlier to 407,117 units.

Dongfeng Motor Group

In July, Dongfeng Motor Group saw its July sales evidently fall 18.76% to 185,966 vehicles. For the first seven months, the automaker delivered 1,696,102 vehicles in total, a slight sales drop of 0.24% compared with the same period in 2017, according to the sales report released by the group.

The sales of its passenger vehicle (PV) and commercial vehicle (CV) sectors reached 156,578 units and 29,388 units respectively in July, both suffering two-digit year-on-year decrease—the PV sales fell 19.11% and the CV sales shrank 16.84%. In terms of the performance of each segment, the automaker's car sales in July climbed 5.9% from a year ago to 87,917 units. However, the SUV and MPV sales slumped 39.37% and 29.41% over the year-ago period respectively to 57,080 units and 11,581 units.

Three major joint ventures, namely, Dongfeng Honda, Dongfeng Renault and Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile (DPCA), all experienced year-on-year sales slump last month. Especially, July sales of Dongfeng Renault were almost halved versus the performance in the previous year.

GAC Group

GAC Group reported sales of 169,752 vehicles in July, up 7.25% from a year earlier. From January to July, the group handed over 1,186,531 vehicles, presenting a year-on-year growth of 5.77%.

From January to July, the group's cumulative sales of passenger vehicle (PV) reached 1,182,857 units, up 5.53% year on year. Last month, the group posted PV deliveries of 168, 535 units, up 6.56% from a year ago.

In July, the sales of GAC Honda reached 56,750 units, edging down 0.12% over the previous year. During the past seven months, the subsidiary's cumulative sales reached 395,653 units with a year-on-year growth of 4.65%.

As to the other Sino-Japanese joint venture, GAC Toyota posted a year-on-year sales growth of 23.16% to 51,118 units last month. By the end of July, the sales of GAC Toyota amounted to 306,506 units, jumping 17.45% on an annual basis.

Changan Automobile

Chongqing Changan Automobile Co.,Ltd (Changan Automobile) delivered 128,729 vehicles in July, suffering an evident year-on-year drop of 20.3% and a month-on-month slump of 31.6%. For the first seven months, the automaker saw its year-to-date sales fall 16.0% to 1,336,110 units, according to the data released by Changan Automobile.

Changan Automobile's self-owned brand posted a sharp month-on-month decline of 35.2% with 89,596 vehicles handed over in July. The monthly sales of Changan-branded PVs were 54,571 units, shrinking 15.5% over the previous year and plunging 28.8% over the previous month. By the end July, the automaker's self-owned brand faced a year-on-year decrease of 16% with its cumulative sales totaling 1,336,110 units.

With respect to joint ventures' performance, Changan Ford witnessed its July sales tumble 49.3% to 23,934 units. For the first seven months, the Sino-U.S. joint venture suffered a sharp year-on-year drop of 40.1% with 251,636 vehicles delivered in total. Besides, the sales of Changan Mazda reached 9,779 units in July, sliding 25.4% from a year earlier, and 100,016 units from January through July, edging down 3.9% over a year ago. Jiangling Motors Holding suffered a month-on-month slump of 59.3% in July with its sales only reaching 17,788 units.

Geely Auto

Geely Auto sales (including the Lynk & Co) reached 120,277 units last month, jumping 32% year on year, while edging down 6.4% month on month. By the end of July, the automaker delivered a total of 886,907 vehicles so far this year with a substantial year-on-year growth of 43%, completing 56% of its 1.58 million-unit sales target.

As to the performance of sedan models, the July sales of the Geely Emgrand and the all-new Vision climbed 8.7% and 8.8% respectively from a year ago and basically remained the same as the performance in June. The sales of the Emgrand GL and the Borui (including the Borui GE which just hit the market on May 28) surged 49.7% and 32.7% over the year-ago period, despite the month-on-month sales drop on both models. From January to July, the four sedan models all saw positive year-on-year growth.

Apart from the Vision X3, most of the Geely Auto's SUV models faced month-on-month sales decline in July. The sales of the Boyue fell 11.2% last month compared with the corresponding period in 2017 to 19,413 units. In addition, the July sales of the Vision SUV and the Vision S1 evidently reduced 12.2% and 42.9% over the previous month.

Chery Holding

Chery Holding Group reported a year-on-year sales jump of 26.5% with 55,880 vehicles delivered in July.

Chery Automobile Co.,Ltd, a major subsidiary of Chery Holding, saw its July car sales leap 25.3% from a year ago to 45,569 units, among which 37,480 units were fossil fuel-powered vehicles. From January to July, the cumulative sales of fossil fuel-powered vehicles amounted to around 249,000 units, over 70% of sales target (350,000 units) having been completed.

In July, the automaker's NEV sales skyrocketed 147.8% over the previous year to 8,089 units. By the end of July, 41,452 NEVs were handed over so far this year with a striking year-on-year growth of 229.9%, exceeding the whole NEV sales of 37,000 units in 2017.

Great Wall Motor

Great Wall Motor (GWM) delivered 54,334 vehicles in July, sliding 21.33% over the previous year. During the past seven months, GWM's cumulative sales reached 525,849 units, edging down 0.75% from a year ago. By far, GWM has completed 45.33% of its 2018 sales target.

The cumulative sales of GWM's major SUVs reached 44,374 units, slumping 25.95% from a year ago. From January to July, GWM delivered 447,330 SUVs, showing a year-on-year decline of 2.25%. Specifically, sales of Haval SUV reached 37,294 units in July, sliding 11.64% month on month and slumping 30.75% year on year. The sales of Haval SUVs totaled 362,603 units during the past seven months.

GWM's SUV suffered continuous sales drop for several consecutive months. Apart from Haval's widened sales drop, WEY, GWM's high-end brand, also suffered continuous sales decline. Deliveries of the WEY VV5 and VV7 reached 3,508 units and 3,032 units respectively in July, slumping 31.5% and 36.7% month on month respectively. What's more, the WEY P8, a PHEV under WEY, experienced its first-time sale drop in July, with 540 vehicles delivered, dropping 5.26% compared with last month.  

BYD Auto

BYD delivered 37,315 vehicles in July. From January to July, BYD handed over 261,812 units, jumping 23% on an annual basis. Among them, BYD's new energy vehicle (NEV) sales totaled 18,793 units in July and its YTD sales reached 93,677 units.

In July, sales of BYD's fossil fuel-powered vehicle reached 18,522 units. Sales of sedan, SUV and MPV reached 3,173 units, 4,941 units and 10,408 units respectively during the same month. For the first seven months, the cumulative deliveries of fossil fuel-powered vehicle totaled 168,135 units. Specifically, year-to-date sales of sedan, SUV and MPV reached 39,694 units, 36,945 units and 91,496 units.

From January to July, BYD experienced continuous NEV sales growth. Specifically, sales of new energy PV, pure electric vehicle and PHEV reached 89,473 units, 32,016 units and 57,457 units respectively.

JAC Motors

JAC Motors delivered 37,896 vehicles in July, leaping 19.89% from a year ago. During the past seven months, JAC handed over 290,166 vehicles with a YoY drop of 5.26%, according to the data from official website of JAC.

To be specific, sales of JAC SUVs and sedans reached 12,077 units and 4,758 units in July, surging 76.44% and 84.2% respectively from the same period last year. In July, JAC sold 3,601 MPVs with a year-on-year growth of 32.22%.

During the first half of 2018, JAC carried out several aggressive steps in NEV segment to boost its NEV sales growth. In July, its pure electric passenger vehicle sales reached 5,188 units, soaring 110.04% on an annual basis. Its cumulative sales achieved a 112.45% surge to 11,871 units during the first seven months.