China’s Jan.-Jul. automobile imports tumbled 30.1% year on year

For the first seven months of the year, China imported a total of 430,000 vehicles (including chassis), posting a year-on-year slump of 30.1%, and saw the year-to-date import value of automobiles reached 142.8 billion yuan ($20,637,328,908), according to Sinomach Automobile Co.,Ltd., China's largest dealer of imported vehicles.

In July, the automobile import volume fell 12.7% year on year to roughly 69,000 units, which are worth 22.87 billion yuan ($3,305,152,046).

In the Jan.-Jul. period, China's deliveries of imported PVs tumbled 20.8% from a year ago to 516,284 units, of which 84,791 units were handed over to consumers in July. Compared to June, the year-on-year decrease in July deliveries contracted to 3.4% due to the relatively small base number for the year-ago period.

The cars and SUVs accounted for 95.7% of the Jan.-Jul. imported PV deliveries in China. Specifically, the sales of imported cars and SUVs plunged 20.4% and 21.4% over a year earlier respectively to 208,612 units and 285,716 units. With 21,956 units sold so far this year, the imported MPV sector logged a 15.9% decline compared to the same period a year ago.

Among the top 10 imported auto brands by July deliveries, Lexus was honored the champion with 21,962 vehicles sold in the world’s largest auto market. The Toyota-owned luxury brand gained a robust 24.9% year-on-year growth thank to the impetus from the Lexus ES. Mercedes-Benz took the runner-up place, seeing its sales of imported vehicles soar 46.7% to 15,034 units with the GLE-Class serving as the main driver. The other two brands achieving growth were Audi (+26.9%) and Nissan (+27.8%), which were ranked sixth and tenth respectively.

The other six brands on the top 10 list—BMW, Toyota, Porsche, Land Rover, Volkswagen and Subaru—were all bruised by year-over-year drop.

The landscape of the top 10 imported auto brands by year-to-date deliveries was somewhat different over the previous months. The No.1 was still Lexus whose Jan.-Jul. deliveries climbed 8% to 118,746 units, while Mercedes-Benz moved up to the runner-up place with a delivery volume of 81,768 units, 1,168 units more than that of BMW.