Toyota, Mazda jump, Honda climbs, Nissan edges down in Nov. China sales

Four major Japanese automakers have announced their China sales performance in November. The biggest bright spot should be Mazda, which achieved a double-digit increase after four-straight-month downturn.

Toyota's sales have rebounded from the decline a month earlier, and Honda still maintained a rising impetus. Nevertheless, Nissan became the only automaker that suffered decrease.

Toyota

After facing a slight downturn in October, Toyota saw its China sales jump 11.4% year on year to around 152,200 units in November, outselling the other three major Japanese rivals.

Based on the previous data collected by Gasgoo, the automaker was supposed to sell roughly 1,465,200 new vehicles during the first eleven months, posting an increase of 8.4% over the previous year. 

FAW-Toyota, the joint venture Toyota co-build with China's FAW Group, reported a year-over-year increase of 13% with around 74,435 new cars delivered last month. Meanwhile, its year-to-date sales edged up 1.2% thanks to the roll-out of such new models as the all-new Corolla, the all-new RAV4 and the Avalon. After eleven months through November, the company sold some 670,000 vehicles in total, completing 92% of its 2019 sales target.

The other joint venture GAC Toyota has not released its Nov. performance yet.

The premium auto brand Lexus gained double-digit growth in both Nov. sales and cumulative sales. After eleven months passed, the brand had sold 180,239 vehicles (+21.01%) in China, of which 19,325 units (+16.5%) were sold last month.

Honda

Honda delivered 140,316 new vehicles in China last month with a year-on-year growth of 2.6%, boasting the 9th-month-in-a-row growth as of November, 2019.

Both joint ventures achieved increase in Nov. deliveries. With 69,072 vehicles handed over to consumers, GAC Honda posted a year-on-year growth of 2%. Besides, Dongfeng Honda saw its retail sales climb 3.3% to 71,244 units.

Retailing 1,411,602 new cars from January to November, Honda's China unit gained a double-digit growth of 13.8%, 1.4 percentage points less than the growth in Jan.-Oct. deliveries.

Among vehicles delivered so far this year, 713,390 units (+21%) were the contribution of Dongfeng Honda. Meanwhile, GAC Honda posted a smaller growth (7.3%) in comparison, delivering 698,212 new vehicles in total.

There were a total of six models, namely, the Accord, the Crider, the Vezel, the Civic, the CR-V and the XR-V, whose respective sales all exceeded 10,000 units in November, said the automaker. Notably, the sales volume of the Civic has been topping 20,000 units for six straight months through November. With 15,156 units delivered, the hybrid models of the Accord, the Odyssy, the CR-V, the Inspire and the Elysion were still well received by consumers.

Nissan

Nissan said its China deliveries for the first eleven months totaled 1,378,629 units, edging down 0.7% from the year-prior period, while still outpacing the overall auto market.

The PV business arm, including Dongfeng Nissan and Dongfeng Venucia—sold 1,149,470 new vehicles through November, facing a slight drop of 0.5%. Of that, Dongfeng Nissan, retailing 1,041,020 units, obtained a tiny growth of 0.8%.

Additionally, the light commercial vehicle business unit—Dongfeng Automobile Co.,Ltd (DFAC) and Zhengzhou Nissan—saw its year-to-date retail sales climb 0.5% to 193,497 units.

As of monthly performance, Nissan said its China deliveries edge down 1% over a year ago to 148,582 units in November. A total of 114,795 consumers took delivery of Dongfeng Nissan’s new vehicles, up by 3.3% from a year ago. Besides, 10,753 Venucia-branded cars were delivered last month.

In November, the sales volume of the Sylphy series, the TIIDA, the LANNIA, the Qashqai and Kicks all showed double-digit increase. Notably, both Sylphy and Qashqai featured the best-ever figure in Nov. sales.

Mazda

According to the sales data released by Mazda Motor (China) Co., Ltd, the Japanese automaker delivered 21,634 new vehicles in China last month, posting a 12.8% growth compared with 19,180 units sold a year ago.

Both two joint ventures gained double-digit increase in Nov. deliveries. Retailing 9,021 and 12,613 vehicles respectively, FAW-Mazda and Changan Mazda gained growth of 12.3% and 13.1% from the previous month.

For the first eleven months of the year, Mazda handed over a total of 203,258 vehicles to consumers in China. Affected by previous prolong downturn, the company saw year-to-date China deliveries slide 19.3% despite the rebound in November.

The dwindling demand also impinged on this year's cumulative sales for both joint ventures. Based on the latest and previous figures, 80,998 customers took delivery of FAW-Mazda's new vehicles, down by 19.4% year over year, while Changan Madza's retail sales fell 19.2% to 122,260 units.

The Mazda3 Axela still outperformed other models with 10,006 vehicles delivered in November. By the end of November, the automaker had delivered a total of 87,262 Mazda Axela cars so far this year.