Summary of four major Japanese automakers’ China sales in May

Toyota and Honda still obtained robust growth in both May sales and Jan.-May sales in China despite an overall sluggish auto market climate, presenting a quite powerful brand influence. Nissan saw its China sales edged down 0.4% partly affected by the sales drop of its mainstay model Sylphy. By the end of May, Mazda has seen its China retail sales decline for 13 consecutive months.

Toyota

Toyota was crowned the Japanese automaker champion by May sales in China. Last month, the carmaker witnessed its sales in this country grow 12.1% to 138,500, the 15th in a row achieving positive growth.

Based on the previous data compiled by Gasgoo, Toyota's Jan.-May sales in China may total roughly 629,100 units, climbing around 12% over a year ago.

Additionally, the year-to-date (YTD) sales of its premium car brand Lexus in China have aggregated 760,000 units, jumping 27% year on year.

According to the product roll-out plan exposed by FAW-Toyota, the TNGA-based all-new Corolla and the new RAV4 are set to hit the market in August and October respectively. The future participation of the Vellfire Hybrid MPV will further enrich Toyota’s China product lineup.

The Japanese on June 7 said it will partner with China's Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) and EV maker BYD for battery procurement to meet the accelerated global shift to electricity-powered cars. 

Honda

Honda saw its China sales in May jump 37.4% year on year to 136,486 units, recording its highest-ever performance in terms of May sales in this country, according to Honda's China branch.

Both joint ventures achieved all-time high sales in May. To be specific, GAC Honda's deliveries leapt 34.2% over a year ago to 68,642 units, while Dongfeng Honda handed over 67,844 vehicles with a 40.9% year-on-year surge.

For the first five months of 2019, Honda's China deliveries grew 19.1% from the previous year to 597,027 units, among which the contribution offered by GAC Honda and Dongfeng Honda were 315,265 units (+14.1%) and 281,762 units (+25.3%).

There were a total of six models--the Accord, the Fit, the Crider, the CR-V, the Civic and the XR-V--whose respective May sales all exceeded 10,000 units. The deliveries of the tenth-generation Accord reached 18,252 last month, which made its cumulative sales surpassed 200,000 units by the end of May since it hit the market. 

Nissan

Nissan said on June 5 it has continued to outperform the cooling market for the past 10 consecutive months despite a slight decline of its China and passenger vehicle (PV) business for the first five months of 2019, down 0.4% from the year-ago period to 587,197 vehicles and 2.2% to 481,613 vehicles respectively.

Two light commercial vehicle (CV) arms—Dongfeng Automobile Co.,Ltd. and Zhengzhou Nissan—sold 92,260 vehicles in total during the past five months, gaining a year-on-year increase of 13.2%.

As to monthly sales in May, Nissan's China sales shrank 4.8% to 121,895 units.

The PV business sector (Dongfeng Nissan and Dongfeng Venucia)’s sales in May fell 5.6% from the previous year to 100,497 vehicles, of which the sales volume of Dongfeng Nissan and Venucia-brand vehicles were 91,394 units and 9,103 units.

Dongfeng Nissan recorded its best-ever YTD sales of 430,424 units with a slight growth of 0.1%, while its May sales were down by 4.3% to 91,394 units. Such key models as the Nissan X-Trail, Qashqai, Tiida, Lannia, new Altima, Kicks and SUV series continued to boost sales.

Growth for Dongfeng Venucia in May was buoyed mainly by the Venucia D60 (5,697 vehicles). 

Mazda

For the first five months of 2019, Mazda has delivered a total of 86,771 vehicles in China, a slump of 31.4% compared with a year ago, according to Mazda Motor (China) Co., Ltd.

As to the performance in May, Mazda saw its retail sales tumble 29% over the previous year to 17,385 units. According the sales data compiled by Gasgoo, this is the 13th month in a row for Mazda to suffer year-on-year negative growth in China sales.

Both joint ventures posted year-on-year sales drop of over 20% in May. FAW-Mazda's deliveries plunged 37.2% to 6,158 units, while Changan Mazda handed over 11,227 vehicles with a steep decrease of 23.6%.

Along with the Jan.-Apr. sales number, FAW-Mazda and Changan Mazda's deliveries for the first five months amounted to 32,219 units and 54,551 units, sliding 37.1% and 27.5% respectively from the year-ago period.