SUV sales keeps rising in Chinese auto market this April, JV brands account 50% of market share

At the 2016 Beijing Auto Show, most joint venture brands has focused on breakthroughs of middle and high end products, and the segment of mainstream SUVs still needs further development. With more and more JV brands introducing their mainstream 2017 SUV models, the competition in this segment is warming up.

This April, China’s passenger vehicle market has witnessed a decline compared against this March, but a slightly increase compared against last April, while SUV models still took lead in the market.

According to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the sales of passenger vehicles this April totaled 1,779,100 units, down by 13.45% compared against this March, while up by 6.5% compared against last April. The sales of SUV models totaled 609,300 units, down by 12.09% compared against this March, but up by a significant 31.64% compared against last April. For the first 4 months of 2016, China’s passenger vehicles market has witness sales of totally 7,448,100 units, including 2,573,500 SUVs.

To be noted, the market share of China’s domestic SUV models kept falling due to increasingly warming up competition with each other, but still above 50%.

Reportedly, the sales of domestic SUVs totaled 339,155 units in April, down by 12.7% compared against this March while up by 39.7% compared against last April, and accounted 55.67% of the total SUV sales in China. For the first 4 months of 2016, Chinese domestic brands has sold 1,485,315 SUVs, up by 51.25%, and accounted for a market share of 57.72%.

Against a backdrop of relatively depressing domestic SUV sales, JV brands have seen its opening to join in the competition. Among the Top 10 best- selling SUV models in April, six are JV brands, including Buick Envision, VW Touareg, Honda XR-V, Honda CR-V, Honda VEZEL and Nissan X-Trail.

Among these JV brands, German brands are the only ones in April witnessed increase against March, and Korean brands are the players that witnessed largest increase against last April. Japanese brands still hold the largest market share.

To be more specific, the sales of Japanese SUV stood at 102,712 units this April, down by 2.98% compared against this March and up by 31.27% against last April, and accounted 16.86% of the total SUV sales. For the first 4 months of 2016, Japanese brands sold 368.434 cars, up by 47.2% against last April, and accounted for 10.32% of the market.

American brands sold 57,773 SUVs this April, down by 15.84% against this March and up by 26.77% against last April, and accounted 9.49% of total market. For the first 4 months of 2016, the sales of American SUVs totaled 253,450 units, up by 62.52% against last April.

Korean brands sold 49,801 SUVs this April, down by 13.15% against this March and up by 45.22% against last April, and accounted 8.17% of total market. For the first 4 months of 2016, the sales of Korean SUVs totaled 187,395 units, up by 48.13% against last April.

The sales of Germany SUVs stood at 47,993 units this April, up by 1.53% compared against this March and up by 5.69% against last April, and accounted 7.88% of the total SUV sales. For the first 4 months of 2016, Germany brands sold 200,860 cars, up by 10.53% against last April, and accounted for 5.94% of the market.