July 2020 update: sales of Chinese major automobile groups

China auto outputs and sales reached 2.201 million units and 2.112 million units in July, jumping 21.9% and 16.4% from the year-ago period respectively, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

The upturn in overall auto market signals that quite a few automakers recorded year-on-year sales growth as well. Eight of ten Chinese major automobile groups enumerated here succeeded in gaining two-digit increase in July sales. Of them, Changan Automobile was the fastest-growing one thanks to the sweeping growth of all subsidiaries. In spite of the smallest increase, BYD procured year-on-year rise for the first time so far this year.

Regarding year-to-date sales, Changan was the only one that achieved increase compared to the corresponding period a year ago. The other automakers got their sales decrease further contracted over the previous month.

SAIC Motor logs bigger YoY sales increase in July

With 457,558 new vehicles sold, SAIC Motor recorded a 4.04% year-on-year growth in July sales, 1.27 percentage points higher than the increase in June sales.

Except SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC Motor PV and SAIC GM Wuling Indonesia Co.,Ltd., the other subsidiaries all saw their July sales rise over the previous year. Notably, CV makers, such as SAIC-IVECO Hongyan Commercial Vehicle and Naveco Ltd., had their sales over doubled from the previous year.

In terms of July sales, SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW) took the runner-up place among SAIC's subsidiaries by selling 130,000 new vehicles, only 4,000 units fewer than that of the champion SAIC Volkswagen. It also attained a robust growth standing at 19.82%, the fourth-month-in-a-row increase achieved this year.

SAIC-GM secured this year's first-time growth in July with 112,767 vehicles sold. According to Buick's announcement, the brand saw its July wholesale mount up 36.6% from the previous year to 76,926 units. To be specific, the sales of the Lacross, the Regal and the Excelle reached 5,739 units (+191% YoY), 13,309 units (+223% YoY) and 17,305 units respectively. Besides, it also sold 20,551 SUVs last month, a year-on-year jump of 32.3%.

As for year-to-date performance, the decrease SAIC Motor posted has shrunk to 25.77% as of July from 30.24% for the first-half of the year.

FAW Group sees July sales vigorously grow 23.2% YoY

FAW Group said its new vehicle outputs and sales leapt 28.6% and 23.2% from a year earlier respectively to 337,265 units and 322,471 units in July.

Both PV and CV sectors attained manifest growth in production and sales volumes last month. Specifically, PV outputs and sales reached 286,263 units and 275,507 units, jumping 18% and 15.6% year on year respectively, while the CV arm boasted much bigger increase by producing 51,002 vehicles (+159.4%) and selling 46,964 vehicles (+99.5%).

With 17,508 units sold, Hongqi scored a remarkable 98.8% growth in July, achieving its seventh-month-in-a-row year-on-year growth for the year of 2020.

As one of sales contributors of Hongqi, the Hongqi H5's refreshed version formally hit the market at the 2020 China Changchun International Automobile Expo in July and significantly contributed to the brand's July sales growth.

As for joint ventures, the sales of FAW Mazda, FAW-Volkswagen and FAW-Toyota amounted to 8,106, 168,492 and 78,086 units, growing 1.2%, 6.9% and 40% over the previous year.

Dongfeng Motor Group garners 12.13% growth in July sales

Dongfeng Motor Group Company Limited (Dongfeng) boasted a 12.13% year-on-year growth in July primarily credited to the 57.07% surge achieved by its CV unit. In addition, its PV sales also climbed 4.66% over a year ago to 198,189 units thanks to the rising momentum conveyed by both car and MPV sales.

Thanks to the consecutive rises, the Wuhan-headquartered automaker witnessed the decrease in its year-to-date sales contracted to 12.74%, versus the 16.73% decline in the first-half volume.

Dongfeng Motor Company Limited logged a 14.45% year-on-year increase which substantially resulted from the sales growth achieved by Dongfeng Nissan and Dongfeng Automobile Co.,Ltd. Dongfeng Honda's sales in July rose 9.82% from a year ago. The joint venture has put the mid-cycle refresh of the CR-V and the hatchback version of the Civic this year and will reportedly launch five models in the second half of the year, including an all-new entry-level hatchback. 

Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile (DPCA) was confronted with a 68.43% and a 63.93% plunge in its July and Jan.-Jul. sales respectively. DPCA launched in September 2019 the “Yuan” plan to restructure operations, slash cost and boost annual sales. During the period from 2020 to 2021, the joint venture will strive to increase its yearly sales volume to 250,000 units and make its break-even point reduced to 150,000 vehicles with a restored system capability and stable profits. However, the current sales showed that the “Yuan” plan has been push ahead with much slower than expected.

GAC Group boasts two-digit growth in both July outputs and sales

GAC Group produced 202,379 and sold 183,937 new vehicles last month, representing year-on-year jump of 21.63% and 16.38% respectively.

GAC Honda still maintained a high speed growth rate in wholesales. The joint venture sold 71,741 vehicles in July, a robust year-on-year growth of 35.09%.

According to the data released by 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.

GAC Toyota saw its July wholesales leap 20.26% to 74,561 units in July. For the first seven months, the Sino-Japanese joint venture logged a 5.95% year-on-year increase by selling 395,449 new vehicles.

GAC Motor, the group's self-owned PV subsidiary, sold 28,293 vehicles last month, which were 6.38% more than that of the prior-year volume. Its MPV sales skyrocketed 116% over the previous year.

GAC Group said its sales of new energy PVs shot up 46% year over year to 6,585 units, of which 5,076 units were sold by GAC NE, featuring a 49% surge compared to the previous year.

Changan Automobile garners sales hike of 38.47% in July

Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd reported a 38.47% year-on-year hike in July sales. Among 164,931 vehicles the automaker sold last month, 123,548 units were from Changan's self-owned brands, a 49.9% robust increase compared to the year-ago period.

Both indigenous and joint-venture brands achieved rising performance in July. The biggest sales contributor was Chongqing Changan, whose sales volume leapt 35.36% from a year ago. Hefei Changan still boasted the largest year-over-year growth, and its year-to-date sales zoomed up 193.94%. Besides, Hebei Changan garnered a double-digit sales growth as well.

The sales of such key models as the Changan UNI-T, the Changan CS75 and the Changan EADO all exceeded 10,000 units in July. The automaker sold 10,081 UNI-T SUVs, the 21,358 CS75 SUVs and 18,735 Eado cars respectively. Moreover, the sales volume of the Changan CS35 and CS55 amounted to 6,389 units and 7,575 units.

Changan Ford's sales jumped 20.22% in July, the fifth-month year-on-year growth the joint venture achieved this year. It is also one of the two subsidiaries who obtained growth in year-to-date sales.

Geely Auto cuts 2020 sales target by 6% to 1.32 million units

Geely Automobile Holdings Limited and its subsidiaries (collectively referred to as the "Group") sold 105,218 new vehicles in July, a year-on-year jump of roughly 15%.

Last month, the Group's export volume rose about 13% over a year ago to 4,523 units, and its domestic sales leapt around 15% to 100,695 units.

During the same period, the automaker sold 35,581 sedans, 66,387 SUVs and 3,250 MPVs respectively.

On June 23, Geely put its all-new SUV “Haoyue” onto the market, thus enabling its SUV lineup to cover such powertrain types as fuel-powered, plug-in hybrid and all-electric versions. The sales of the new SUV amounted to 3,027 units in July.

Lynk & Co saw its July sales soar roughly 78% to 15,331 units, hitting the brand’s record high monthly sales volume.

The automaker was still bruised by a 14% year-over-year decrease in the Jan.-Jul. sales, versus 19% decline in the sales for the first half of the year. With 635,664 units sold as of July, the Group has completed 45% of its 1.32 million-unit annual sales target, which has been recently reduced from 1.41 million units as the sales recovery has so far been slower than expected and near-term uncertainties remain in the global macro environment.

Great Wall Motor scores 29.79% YoY leap in July sales

Great Wall Motor (GWM) said its July sales surged 29.79% year on year to 78,339 units and Jan.-Jul. sales total 473,436 units.

WEY, the SUV brand embodying GWM's ambition to move upscale, boasted a 25% blooming increase over the previous month. The automaker offered the first glimpse of the all-new off-road SUV dubbed “Tank 300” at the Chengdu Motor Show 2020. This is the first model built on the “Tank” platform GWM launched in July 20.

Selling 47,517 new vehicles in July, Haval SUV brand logged a 10.79% growth from the prior-year period. The sales of the Haval H6 and the Haval F7 amounted to 23,723 units and 8,157 units respectively, and the volume of the Haval M6 was doubled over a year ago to 10,094 units.

The presale of the third-generation Haval H6 kicked off on July 24. Featuring GWM's self-developed 1.5GDIT engine, second-generation 7-speed dual clutch transmission and the all-new chassis based on the “Lemon” platform, the new Haval H6 is said to deliver stronger power, greater acceleration performance while consume less fuel.

The BEV-focused ORA brand scored a 47.95% vigorous jump in July by selling 3,064 units. The sales of the “ORA Heimao” (meaning “Black Cat”), which was previously known as the ORA R1, shot up 65% year on year to 2,771 units.

Chery Holding says domestic, export, NEV businesses all gain sales growth in July

Chery Holding obtained a year-on-year sales increase of 14.2% in July by selling 55,922 new vehicles. Notably, its domestic, export and NEV businesses all posted rising performance with their growth standing at 10.37%, 39.7% and 9.8% respectively.

Both Chery Jaguar Land Rover and Cowin achieved sales hike in July, seeing their sales surging 47.8% and 46.8% over the previous year.

Chery Automobile's sales in July jumped 17.9% year on year and leapt 21.3% compared to the previous month. The company has rolled out so far this year the all-new Tiggo 5x, the all-new Tiggo 7, the all-new Tiggo 8's upgraded version and the Arrizo 5 Sports.

Chery New Energy saw its July sales vigorously rise 20% from the prior-year ago. In July, the NEV arm of Chery Holding witnessed the 150,000th Chery eQ1 roll off the production line.

Jetour, a PV brand owned by Chery Commercial Vehicle, has by far sold over 210,000 vehicles since it was launched in August 2018. The brand successively put such key models as the Jetour X70M and the X70 Coupe onto the market in March and April.

JAC Motors' PV sales jump 28.67% year on year

JAC Motors saw its July sales leap 33.61% from a year ago to 36,816 units. With 12,682 units sold, its PV business boasted a 28.67% year-on-year jump thanks to the growth acquired by the SUV, MPV and car units.

The automaker announced that its Jan.-Jul. sales dipped 6.29% over the previous year to 246,186 units. PV sales still tumbled 24.33% to 79,474 units with all of three units hit by double-digit downturn—the SUV suffered the steepest drop.

As of July, the Hefei-based automaker has won its fourth-month-in-a-row year-on-year sales growth. The blooming performance was significantly buoyed by the impressive increase in its CV sales, which has been standing at over 28% since April. 

The upturn in July PV sales may partly owe much to the frequent roll-out of new products bearing the “Jiayue” badge. During the first half of 2020, JAC Motors has put such new models as the Jiayue X7, a new variant of the Jiayue A5 and the Jiayue X4 onto the market.

BYD achieves 2020's first-time YoY sales growth

BYD Company Limited (BYD) said it sold 31,382 new vehicles in July, which were up by 1.28% compared with the prior-year period. It is noteworthy that the slight growth was the first-time increase BYD gained this year.

With 16,282 units sold, BYD's fuel-burning vehicle business posted a 12.93% growth in July from a year earlier.

The oil-fuel vehicle sales added up to 114,233 units in the Jan.-Jul. period, jumping 17.96% from the year ago significantly thanks to the impetus stemming from the Song Pro, the five-seater SUV that hit the market in July 2019. The NEV business had a sales volume of 15,100 units in July, which were slid 8.85% over the year-ago period. It was rather a big rebound as BYD’s NEV sales had been showing plunge of over 45% for ten straight months.

Regarding year-to-date performance, BYD's NEV sales were still more than halved compared to the same period a year ago.

Notably, in the new energy PV sector, the BEV branch witnessed its July sales evidently grow 9.95% to 10,462 units, terminating the 10-consecutive-month downturn. The increase may owe much to the relatively low year-ago base number resulting from the NEV subsidy phase-out and the advent of BYD's flagship Han EV.