Japanese automakers China car sales rocket in Feb. 2021

In February 2021, four major Japanese automakers, namely Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, all saw their China sales vigorously surged from a year ago when the country was at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Toyota was still the No.1 in terms of monthly sales, while the fast-growing one is Honda. Both Nissan and Mazda achieved year-on-year increase of over 300%.

Toyota sees China sales surge 81.4% YoY for Jan.-Feb. period

Toyota saw its China sales reach 117,400 units in February, skyrocketing 393.3% year on year, while sliding 38% month on month. For the Jan.-Feb. period, the automaker sold 306,900 new vehicles in the country, a year-on-year surge of 81.4%.

According to FAW-Toyota, the joint venture's wholesale volume amounted to roughly 135,000 vehicles (+61% YoY) for the first two months, of which around 51,000 units were sold in February.

The other joint venture GAC-Toyota saw its Feb. wholesales zoom up 654.55% year on year to 41,500 units, according to GAC Group.

Lexus reported a Feb. sales volume of 15,745 units for China market, 34.4% of which were electrified vehicles.

The Japanese automaker saw its annual sales in China grow 10.9% from a year ago to 1.797 million units in 2020, representing increase for the eighth year in a row. The company plans to roll out 14 Toyota-branded new models in China this year, including the Lingshang, the all-new Highlander and the ALLION sedan, whose Chinese name “Yazhoushi” (meaning “Asian lion”) was recently announced by FAW-Toyota.

Honda's China business scores 48% YoY surge in Jan.-Feb. deliveries

Honda said it delivered 81,556 new vehicles in China last month, representing a month-over-month plunge of 48% primarily due to the Chinese New Year holiday.

Of the vehicles delivered in Feb., 36,586 units and 44,970 units were from GAC Honda and Dongfeng Honda respectively.

In Feb., over 10,000 consumers took delivery of the CR-V SUVs. During the same period, the deliveries of the models equipped with the Sport Hybrid system amounted to 10,864 units.

For the first two months of 2021, Honda handed over a total of 239,013 new vehicles to consumers in the country, posting a vigorous growth of 48% from a year ago. The increase was attributed to the upward movement in the deliveries of both joint ventures. GAC Honda saw its year-to-date deliveries jump 23.5% to 103,907 units, while Dongfeng Honda recorded a year-on-year hike of 74.6% by delivering 135,106 new vehicles.

The carmaker expects to further raise its China sales this year by rolling out such new models as the Breeze PHEV, the all-new Vezel, the all-new Civic and an all-new A-segment sedan of GAC Honda.

Nissan's China sales surge 400.5% year on year

Nissan's China business scored a marvelous year-on-year growth of 400.5% in February by selling 75,628 new vehicles.

The PV business unit Dongfeng Nissan sold 64,143 vehicles last month with a year-over-year surge of 404.9%. Specifically, the sales of Nissan-branded vehicles shot up 406.5% to 60,968 units, recording growth for 11 months in a row. Venucia, which is currently under the management of Dongfeng Nissan, sold 3,175 new vehicles.

The main sales contributors in Feb. were still the Sylphy, the Altima, the Qashqai and the X-TRAIL. Nevertheless, due to the Spring Festival holiday, their sales all posted evident decrease over a month ago. For instance, monthly sales of the Sylphy series, which usually remained above 40,000 units, amounted to only 28,638 units last month.

The light-duty commercial vehicle business unit had a Feb. sales volume of 10,980 units (+382.2% YoY). Dongfeng Automobile Co., Ltd. and Zhengzhou Nissan sold 8,424 (+417.1% YoY) and 2,556 vehicles (+294.4% YoY) respectively.

Mazda's China business scores 334.4% YoY hike in Feb. deliveries

Mazda Motor (China) Co., Ltd. announced that a total of 10,557 consumers in China took delivery of Mazda's vehicles in Feb., representing a year-on-year surge of 334.4%. 

Changan Mazda outperformed FAW-Mazda in both monthly deliveries and year-on-year growth. The joint venture with Changan Automobile saw its Feb. sales shot up 562.5% to 7,798 units, while FAW-Mazda posted an increase of 120.2% by delivering 2,759 units.

Retailing 31,191 vehicles, the Japanese automaker recorded 33.3% year-over-year jump in China for the first two months. The top 3 models by Jan.-Feb. deliveries were the Mazda3 Axela (14,958 units), the Mazda CX-4 (4,859 units) and the Mazda6 Atenza (4,139 units).

In 2021, the automaker intends to introduce some new products to enrich its China product matrix. For instance, Changan Mazda plans to produce a fire new small-sized SUV, which is expected for sale in the third quarter. Besides, the new Mazda CX-9 full-sized SUV may be locally produced in China this year.