Status of the Chinese passenger automobile market in August

Despite the fact that the Chinese passenger automotive market began to show signs of recovery in August, it still failed to live up to expectations. August marks the third consecutive month this year that market sales were less than those of 2014.

According to statistics from Gasgoo.com (Chinese), a total of 1.36 million passenger automobiles were sold in August. While that figure represents positive growth of 13.4% from July, it is 1.1% less than the amount sold last August. A total of 12.11 million passenger automobiles have been sold from January to August of the year, representing slight year-on-year growth of 4.7%.

Over half of the top ten enterprises in the passenger automotive market have suffered negative year-on-year sales growth rates in August. FAW Volkswagen led the sales charts this month with sales of 130,900 passenger automobiles, down 12.9% from last year. It was followed by Shanghai GM, Shanghai VW, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Dongfeng Nissan, Beijing Hyundai, Changan Automobile, Changan Ford, Great Wall Motor and Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën. SAIC-GM-Wuling, Changan Automobile and Great Wall were among the few automotive manufacturers that managed to post significant sales growth in August.

Combined passenger automobile sales of domestic own brand enterprises grew in August. A total of 501,500 own brand passenger automobiles were sold in August, up 11.6% from a year ago. Own brands models accounted for 36.7% of all passenger automobiles sold in August, up 4.1% from a year ago. Own brand SUVs were especially successful, as they made up nearly half of all own brand models sold in the course of the month. A total of 246,300 own brand SUVs were sold in August, up 64.7% from last year’s figures. By comparison, sales of own brand minivans and sedans fell 6.8% and 20.7%, respectively.

By comparison, sales of foreign branded passenger automobiles continued to fall in August. A total of 865,800 foreign brand passenger automobiles were sold during the course of the month, down 63.3% from last August. Only Japanese brands managed to achieve positive sales growth in August, with monthly sales of Japanese brand passenger automobiles totaling 228,200 units, up 0.9% from last August. By comparison, sales of Korean, US and German passenger automobiles fell 26.6%, 5.1% and 3.5% respectively.