FAW Car sales still stagnate

Shanghai (China)- Recently, the China Passenger Car Association released the latest sales data, which showed that the November sales of FAW Car were 26,887, up 4.5% year on year, and 12,734 of the sales were from self-owned brands, up 6.2% year on year, thanks to the industry sales explosion caused by seasonal factors and consumer habits.

However, the performance relied on Besturn X40 greatly while other Besturn models like B30, X80, B70, etc, dropped over 60%. Besides, the average monthly sales of Besturn X40 from January to November were about 5,000 units, and the performance might present negative growth if not for the stimulus policy of price discount.

According to the notice of AQSIQ, FAW Car was recalling some Besturn X40 manufactured from September 26th, 2016 to August 30th, 2017, totaling 13,680 units, for design and assembly problems, which might cause friction interference between dashboard wire harness and clutch pedal, and even threat to human safety. The exposure shocked the industry. As the forerunner of China's auto industry with a long history of auto manufacturing, FAW shall go wrong with the most basic manufacturing process.

Cui Jue, an auto industry analyst, said, "The issue exposed FAW's disadvantages in development and manufacturing. It was an issue of manufacturing procedures, instead of parts and components. FAW shall make mistakes that even newly emerging self-owned companies would not commit, from which we can see it has stagnated for the past few years."

Though the newest Besturn X40 gained favor with many younger consumers for its newly-developed D-Life system with all-voice control and flexible customization of various online applications, Cui Jue was not optimistic about Besturn X40's future if FAW does not improve product quality, and this concern may not only influence the sales of Besturn X40, but also subsequent Besturn products."

Actually, FAW's passenger business has three divisions, FAW Besturn, FAW Jilin and FAW Xiali, the last two divisions launched Senya R7 and Junpai D60 respectively almost at the same time with the launch of Besturn X40. Because the same technology resources, consumers tended to compare the three models, which meant internal competition before external comparison with other brands. The same case would apply to subsequent products.

Xu Liuping, the former Chairman of Changan Auto, was engaged as the Chairman of FAW in August this year. After four months of his inauguration, the internal competition between FAW sedan and FAW Xiali still persisted, and the problem of lacking innovation in vehicle models of different self-owned brands was still around, thus so far Xu Liuping's policies haven't seen any result.