Q1 sales performance in China for four major Japanese automakers

According to sales data released by four major Japanese automakers, Toyota, Nissan and Honda's Chinese markets all achieved year-on-year increase in both March sales and Q1 sales, while Mazda were still haunted by negative growth.

Some premium car brands, such as Lexus and Infiniti, announced the suggested retail price cuts on their models sold in China in response to China's VAT drop for manufacturing industry, effectively from April 1.

Toyota

Toyota only achieved a year-on-year sales growth of 1.1% in March. As to March sales volume, it was also outnumbered by Nissan and Honda.

However, regarding the Q1 sales, Toyota were still the champion, gained an increase of 8.1%.

According to published data, Toyota's slowdown should be partly attributed to the 13.5% year-on-year drop in the Corolla's sales and 14.2% decrease in Lexus's sales.

Last month, Toyota launched some new models in China including the Avalon, which are expected to further boost the sales.

Nissan

Nissan's China sales in March (including imported vehicles) grew 8.2% from the previous year to 133,069 units. From January to March, it sold a total of 343,748 vehicles in the world's largest auto market with a slight increase of 2.3%.

Dongfeng Nissan, Nissan's major joint venture in China, saw its sales in March climb 6% to 91,568 units, making its Q1 sales increased to 250,986 units, a year-on-year growth of 3.4%.

In March, the sales of the Sylphy, the X-TRAIL and the Qashqai reached 38,265 units, 18,405 units and 12,820 units, rising 25.3%, 10.3% and 5% year on year respectively.

Honda

Honda announced that its March deliveries in China hit a record high of 122,744 units with an evident year-on-year growth of 25.8%.

Last month, both GAC Honda and Dongfeng Honda achieved an all-time high in March sales. GAC Honda saw its March sales grew 9.4% over a year ago to 64,510 units and Dongfeng Honda's sales surged 50.7% to 58,234 units.

There are a total of 6 models whose respective March deliveries exceeded 10,000 units, namely, the Civic, the Accord, the Fit, the CR-V, the XR-V and the Crider. The best seller was the Civic, which had a sales volume of 21,078 units with a remarkable year-on-year increase of 55.1%.

Mazda

Mazda Motor (China) Co., Ltd. reported on April 3 that its retail sales in March dropped 22.8% over the year-ago period to 18,078 units.

Last month, FAW-Mazda delivered 7,629 vehicles with a year-on-year decrease of 24.51% and Changan Mazda saw its March sales slide 21.43% from the previous year to 10,449 units.

For the first quarter of the year, the Japanese automaker sold a total of 52,466 vehicles in China, a sharp decline of 32.26% compared with 77,450 units delivered in the same period of 2018. FAW Mazda and Changan Mazda's year-to-date (YTD) sales were 19,682 units and 32,784 units, slumping 37.8% and 28.43% respectively from a year earlier.