May sales summary of China’s mainstream auto groups

In May 2019, the auto outputs and sales in the world's largest auto market fell 21.16% and 16.40% from a year ago respectively to 1,848,300 units and 1,912,600 units, according to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) on June 12.

For the first five months, China saw its cumulative vehicle outputs and sales fall 13.01% and 12.95% respectively from the year-ago period to 10,237,000 units and 10,265,900 units. The CPCA explained that year-to-date (YTD) numbers were sitting at a relatively low level partly because some regions are about to execute the China 6 Emission ahead of the state's schedule. Due to the policy shift, consumers are lack of confidence over the market and hesitate about buying cars.

Gasgoo compiled sales data released by eight mainstream auto groups in China. Aside from JAC Motors, the other automakers all posted year-on-year decrease in May sales.

SAIC Motor

SAIC Motor's new car sales in May 2019 reached 480,926 units, declining 16.28% from a year ago, the auto group announced on June 11. However, compared with the sales volume for April, the company achieved a positive growth of 5.28%.

In May, SAIC Motor output 412,275 vehicles, a year-on-year slump of 29.77% and a month-on-month drop of 9.6%. 

For the first five months, the Shanghai-based automaker saw its cumulative vehicle sales fall 16.7% to 2,470,757 units. During this period, a total of 2,392,624 vehicles have been produced, presenting a year-on-year drop of 21.57%.

Apart from SAIC GM Wuling Indonesia Co.,Ltd and Shanghai Sunwin Bus whose year-ago-period data were not available for calculation, the other subsidiaries were all faced with downturn in May sales. SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling, the three subsidiaries that have been long occupied the first three places by monthly sales, all attained growth compared with their respective April sales. It may also have something to do with the transformation from China 5 to China 6 stage.

Dongfeng Motor Group

Dongfeng Motor Group sold 224,954 vehicles in May with a year-on-year drop of 11.13%. The monthly PV sales amounted to 184,491 units, shrinking 12.79% over a year ago. Of that, the respective sales of cars, SUVs and MPVs were 94,027 units (-9.19%), 81,895 units (-10.54%) and 8,569 units (-47.93%).

For the first five months, the group also posted a decrease of 10.72% with 1,126,465 vehicles sold in total. Year-to-date PV sales fell 13.57% from a year earlier to 923,762 units.

Dongfeng Venucia and Dongfeng Nissan—two major brands operated by Dongfeng Motor Company Limited—saw their May sales drop 18.73% and 5.83% year on year respectively. As to YTD sales, both of them suffered decrease as well.

Dongfeng Honda boasted double-digit growth in both May sales and YTD sales partly thanks to the attenuate negative impact from the CR-V's engine issue and substantial price discount.

Nevertheless, two Sino-French joint ventures—Dongfeng Renault and DPCA—were still trapped in severe downturn. Especially, Dongfeng Renault came across a year-on-year nosedive of 80.1% in May sales.

GAC Group

GAC Group announced that it May sales edged down 3.59% from a year ago to 159,138 units, which made its cumulative sales so far this year total 810,590 units with a year-on-year drop of 3.25%.

Two Sino-Japanese joint ventures—GAC Honda and GAC Toyota—sold a total of 115,815 units last month, accounting for 72.78% of the automaker’s monthly sales. Both of them achieved positive sales growth in May.

GAC Honda witnessed its May sales jumped 25.08% over a year earlier to 65,215 units. Although GAC Toyota only gained a slight growth of 1.02% in May sales, its Jan.-May. sales substantially climbed 25.12%.

GAC Motor, GAC FCA and GAC Mitsubishi all confronted negative sales growth in May. GAC Motor posted a double-digit decrease of 27.01%, while compared with its April performance, the group's self-owned carmaker attained a growth of 4.18%. 

Changan Automobile

Chongqing Changan Automobile Co.,Ltd said on June 12 that its vehicle sales in May reached 113,497 units, slumping 34.7% year on year and dropping 6.4% month on month. Meanwhile, auto outputs sharply shrink 32.4% over a year ago to 116,995 units.

The automaker announced via its WeChat account that the May retail sales of Changan's self-owned vehicles edged up 4.7% from a month ago to 103,474 units, which made the cumulative number of the year total 558,641 units.

The monthly retail sales of the CS75, the CS55 and the CS35 were 10,309 units, 9,537 units and 8,877 units, jumping 49.8%, 57.4% and 12.4% from the previous month. By the end of May, the cumulative retail sales of the three SUV key drivers amounted to 57,080 units, 52,607 units and 56,167 units respectively.

The YTD deliveries of the EADO series aggregated 52,311 units, of which the May volume was 9,562 units with a month-on-month growth of 10.3%.

The carmaker also reported that a total of 3,298 Changan-branded NEVs were handed over to consumers in May, an increase of 10.2% over a month ago. The Jan.-May NEV deliveries totaled 14,633 units.

Geely Automobile

Geely Automobile said its vehicle sales volume (including the sales volume of Lynk & Co-branded vehicles) for the month of May 2019 reached 90,309 units, a year-on-year decrease of 26.62% and down by 13.09% from April 2019.

The Group said the monthly sales drop mainly resulted from a continuous clearance on aggregated inventories of the dealers. However, the corresponding retail sales volume still chalked up steady year-on-year and month-on-month growth over the same period.

It is noteworthy that the sales volume of Geely's first MPV model “Jiaji” climbed 3.2% month on month to 4,164 units.

The Group also announced that the monthly sales volume of its first high-end all-electric sedan model “Geometry A” amounted to 1,375 units. Sales volume of the company's all new energy and electrified vehicles totaled 10,155 units in May.

During the month of May 2019, the sales of the Lynk & Co 01, 02 and 03 were 4,104 units, 2,040 units and 3,046 units respectively.

Great Wall Motor

Great Wall Motor's sales in May fell 11.78% year on year to 62,559 units, while YTD sales still grew 5.11% from a year ago to 430,239 units.

Last month, the automaker saw its SUV sales volume decline 15.91%, which mainly resulted from the downturn in WEY's sales. There were 6,217 units of WEY-branded SUVs sold last month, the year-on-year decrease for the 9th month in a row. 

The mainstay SUV brand Haval also confronted a year-on-year decrease of 9.4% in May sales. Aside from the Haval M6, F5 and F7, the other models all came across double-digit decline. Nevertheless, Haval's YTD sales still rose 8.63% thanks to the growth in the sales of Haval M6 and the fresh power from the F series.

Although the sales of the Wingle pickup in May substantially shrank 29.18%, while its cumulative sales of the year edged up 2.76%. At the recent Innovative Auto Show, Great Wall Motor launched the Wingle 7 diesel-fueled pickup that fits the China Stage 6 Emission Standard and officially handed over the new pickup on June 6.

JAC Motors

For the month of May, JAC Motor gained a year-on-year growth of 11.46%, while its YTD sales still fell 9.11%.

PV sales in May amounted to 16,745 units, among which the SUV surged 79.81% year on year to 7,667 units and sedan sales soared 101.69% to 5,831 units. Nonetheless, monthly MPV sales slumped 50.88% to 3,247 units.

Export volume in May plunged 23.98% to 4,442 units, which made the Jan.-May volume totaled 21,172 units, a slump of 36.54%.

The NEV sector still presented a robust growth momentum. Sales of new energy PVs reached 7,684 units in May and 29,223 units through May, zooming up 187.79% and 60.8% respectively.

BYD

BYD Company Limited reported that its sales in May of 2019 declined 10.22% over a year ago to 33,920 units, which were also 10.36% less than that of a month earlier.

The monthly sales drop should be entirely attributed to the plunge falling on fuel-burning vehicles’ sales. In May, the automaker saw its oil-fueled vehicle sales tumble 48.93% from the previous year to 12,021 units. Of that, the sales of sedans and MPVs slumped 45.1% to 2,544 units and 57.74% to 6,037 units respectively. The SUV sales reached 3,440 units, still presenting a year-on-year decrease of 25.54%.

BYD's NEV sales in May were still quite satisfactory. A total of 21,899 NEVs were sold last month, showing a remarkable increase of 53.77% compared the same period a year ago. The monthly new energy PV sales amounted to 20,945 units (+56.45%), among which BEVs and PHEVs contributed 15,312 units (+193.73%) and 5,633 units (-31.09%) respectively. Besides, new energy CV sales climbed 11.84% over a year ago to 954 units.