Summary: Sales of mid- to high-class SUVs in April

Statistics from Gasgoo.com (Chinese) show that growth in the Chinese SUV market is still as high as ever. Year-on-year SUV sales growth rates for the month of April and those for the first four months of the year were both around 40 percent. The mid-class and luxury-class segments made up 50 percent to 55 percent of the sales in the Chinese SUV market, with 129,680 units sold in April and 464,700 units sold from January to April.

The Honda CR-V remained the best selling model among upper level SUVs in April, followed by the VW Tucson, Hyundai ix35, Toyota RAV4, Ford Kuga, Nissan Qashqai, Kia Sportage-R, Toyota Highlander, GAC GS5 and Hyundai Tucson.

The CR-V and Tiguan's sales for the month totaled 15,600 units and 13,200 units, respectively. The two models' sales last April were 17,400 units and 16,000 units, 10.2 percent and 5.8 percent higher than the numbers posted this April.

Third place ix35, meanwhile, saw its sales grow over 90 percent from 6,293 units last April to 12,000 units this April. Korean manufacturer Hyundai was one of the major benefactors of the backlash Japanese automobile enterprises in the country at the end of last year, with monthly sales of the ix35 not managing to surpass the 8,000 unit mark.

Two new models–the recently released Ford Kuga and the own brand GAC GS5–made their first appearances in the top ten SUV sales charts this April, with their monthly sales totaling 9,600 units and 5,400 units, respectively.

Looking at combined sales results for the first four months of the year, the VW Tiguan was the best performing SUV in its segment, followed by the CR-V, ix35, RAV4, Qashqai, Sportage-R, Highlander, Hyundai Santa Fe, Kuga and GS5. The new Santa Fe, Kuga and GS5 performed very well for their relatively short times on the market, managing to bring in 24,500 orders, 20,300 orders and 19,700 orders, respectively.

Of the models that made their market debuts before the start of this year, the RAV4 and Qashqai were the only two which experienced negative year-on-year sales growth over the four month period, with their sales totaling 33,200 units and 32,000 units. On the other side of the spectrum, the ix35 reported a remarkable positive year-on-year sales growth rate of 80.5 percent. The Sportage-R and Highlander also posted sales growth rates in the double digits.