Japanese automakers’ China sales keep increasing in July

In July, major Japanese automakers saw their China sales continue to grow. Toyota, Honda and Nissan all logged two-digit growth, while Mazda's sales also climbed 4.1% over a year earlier.

Notably, Toyota saw the growth in year-to-date sales turn positive, which represented a faster recovery from the coronavirus-caused plight.

Toyota gains 1.1% growth in year-to-date sales

Last month, Toyota sold 165,600 new vehicles in China with a robust 19.1% growth from a year earlier. As of July, the automaker has gained double-digit year-on-year increase in the country for three straight months. 

As for year-to-date sales, Toyota has successfully plugged the China sales gap caused by the COVID-19 pandemic by gaining a 1.1% growth.

Ren Wanfu, a car industry analyst, told a local media outlet, that Toyota's sales growth in China should be thanks to three factors— greater product competitiveness after the upgrades of major models, consumers' higher recognition over Toyota's HEV models and more consumers attracted to Japan-born vehicles from other joint-venture brands.

FAW-Toyota announced its July sales soared 40% year on year to 79,050 units, which made its year-to-date sales amounted to roughly 430,000 units (+0.8%).

GAC Toyota reported a 20% jump with 74,561 vehicles sold in July. The respective sales of four product series—Wildlander, Camry, Levin and YARiS—all surpassed 10,000 units.

Lexus' China business scored a sales hike of 38.6% with 22,323 vehicles sold in July, 39.4% of which were from electrified models.

The premium brand enlarged in July its hybrid product lineup by launching the limited edition of the ES 300h, the NX 300h, the RX 450h and the RX 450hL while announcing its cumulative HEV sales in China exceeded 300,000 units.

Honda's China business achieves best-ever figure in July deliveries

Honda said its new vehicle deliveries in China jumped 17.8% from the previous year to 136,646 units last month, the highest-ever volume in terms of July sales.

Both GAC Honda and Dongfeng Honda posted double-digit growth in July deliveries. According to Honda, a total of 69,187 consumers in China took delivery of the vehicles developed by GAC Honda, representing a year-on-year jump of 24.5%.

There were four models of GAC Honda—the Accord, the Vezel, the Breeze and the Crider—whose July deliveries all exceeded 10,000 units. For the time being, the joint venture has put such models as the new Avancier, the Crider Hybrid and the new Acura CDX onto the market this year.

It also kicked off the presale of the all-new Fit in early July, which is expected to hit the market in August. The roll-out of the all-new Fit will help GAC Honda further complete its product lineup that places equal emphasis on both SUVs and sedans, so as to smooth away the problem of simplex product structure.

Dongfeng Honda's deliveries grew 11.7% from the year-ago period to 67,459 units in July. The respective retail sales of the three models—the Civic, the CR-V and the XR-V—all surpassed 10,000 units. Notably, the volume of the Civic has been topping 20,000 units for three consecutive months.

Nissan's China business records fifth-month-in-a-row growth

Nissan Motor Co.,Ltd. said its sales in China rose 11.6% in July from a year ago to 120,945 vehicles, the highest-ever July sales and the fifth-month-in-a-row growth the Japanese automaker has achieved.

Selling 717,287 vehicles in total, Nissan recorded a 13.2% year-on-year drop in China sales for the first seven months, 3.8 percentage points lower than the decrease in first-half volume.

“Although Nissan's China sales have continued to grow, there will be many uncertainties in the automobile market for the second half of the year as the COVID-19 pandemic still exists within and without China,” said Shohei Yamazaki, Senior vice president of Nissan and President of Dongfeng Motor Company Limited.

Its PV business arm—including Dongfeng Nissan and Dongfeng Venucia—delivered a total of 99,540 vehicles in July, a year-on-year increase of 9.3%.

Dongfeng Nissan also achieved its best-ever July sales (including the sales of Nissan-branded imported models) with 94,238 vehicles handed over to consumers, a 13.5% growth compared to the year-ago period.

The joint venture posted sustained growth in both car and SUV July sales. To be specific, the deliveries of the seven-generation Altima and the Sylphy series reached 10,161 units (+20.5%) and 46,851 units (+65%), while 31,809 consumers took delivery of SUVs, including 14,530 and 13,047 bought the X-trails and the Qashqais respectively.

Nissan's light commercial vehicle (LCV) business in China logged a robust 31.3% increase by selling 18,662 vehicles in July. The wholesales of Dongfeng Automobile Co., Ltd. (DFAC) and Zhengzhou Nissan mounted up 33.4% and 24.3% to 14,623 units and 4,039 units.

Mazda's China deliveries show YoY growth for four straight months

Mazda Motor (China) Co.,Ltd. reported a retail sales volume of 17,750 units in July, which climbed 4.1% over a year ago.

Thanks to the consecutive increase for the Apr.-Jul. period, the Japanese automaker saw the decrease in its China year-to-date sales further narrow to 6.7%. For the first seven months, 115,080 consumers in China took delivery of the Mazda's vehicles.

FAW-Mazda obtained a 4.1% growth in July with 6,804 vehicles delivered. As for the year-to-date performance, the joint venture saw its aggregate sales edge up 2.1% from a year earlier to 47,183 units.

FAW Group's independent business unit set for Mazda brand officially started operation on June 1, and it takes over the whole operational businesses of the Sino-Japanese brand from FAW Car Co., Ltd.

Under the group's direct leadership, FAW-Mazda is expected to grow faster by virtue of higher management efficiency, more autonomy in decision making, stronger control of production quality and less pressure in gaining short-term profits.

Changan Mazda delivered 10,946 new vehicles in July, posting a 4.1% increase over the prior-year period. However, the growth in its Jan.-Jul. deliveries still remained negative due to the flagging sales for the first seven months.

The top 3 models by both July and Jan.-Jul. deliveries were still the Mazda3 Axela, the CX-4 and the CX-5. The sales of the best-selling one reached 6,329 units in July and totaled 45,977 units for the first seven months.