Roundup of Chinese automakers' Sept. sales, someone still defies gravity

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- China's auto market recorded its 15-straight-month sales downturn as of September, 2019. According to the sales data released by major automakers in China and compiled by Gasgoo, we found that, during the past three quarters, most companies failed to achieve rising sales performance.

But some automakers still performed against the general cooling trend. Great Wall Motor and Chery Holding saw their sales rise in September. Notably, the former also boasted increase in year-to-date sales.

The brief sales performances of nine mainstream Chinese automakers are as follows:

SAIC Motor

SAIC Motor posted the 13th-month-in-a-row year-on-year sales downturn as of September, 2019, according to the company's latest sales report.

Last month, the Chinese biggest automaker sold 549,999 vehicles, down by 9.94% from the year-ago period, while up by 12.97% over the previous month. Year-to-date sales still represented a decline of 14.23%, versus 14.81% year-on-year decrease in Jan.-Aug. sales.

Apart from SAIC-IVECO Hongyan Commercial Vehicle and Shanghai Sunwin Bus Corporation, the other subsidiaries all attained growth compared with August.

(Photo source: SAIC Volkswagen)

The top 3 subsidiaries by September sales—SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM-Wuling and SAIC-GM—all suffered year-on-year decline. In terms of Jan.-Sept. sales, the growth of the three companies still remained negative.

SAIC Motor PV, the group's self-owned PV arm, saw its sales rise 9.65% to 57,025 units. However, its year-to-date sales still represented a decrease of 7.34%.

Dongfeng Motor Group

After two consecutive months of growth, Dongfeng Motor Group saw its auto sales edge down 1.34% year on year in September.

The downturn resulted from the decrease in PV sales. Last month, the group's PV sales dropped 3.31% over a year ago to 229,945 units, even though CV sales jumped 12.67%.

Of that, sales of cars grew 5.08% to 118,284 units, while the 7.81% and 34.24% decline in SUV and MPV sales still brought down the total PV sales.

For the first three quarters, Dongfeng Motor Group still posted a decline of 4.48% with 2,095,992 vehicles sold in total. Still, the PV unit was the drag on total sales.

（Photo source: Dongfeng Nissan)

Dongfeng Nissan faced a tiny drop in September sales, while its year-to-date sales still edged up 0.79%. Another Sino-Japanese joint venture Dongfeng Honda attained apparent increase in both Sept. sales and Jan.-Sept. sales.

Dongfeng Renault was hit by a steeper slide last month—sales drop was enlarged to 76.07% from 64.14% in August. After posting a substantially contracted decrease in July, DPCA saw its sales plunge 58% and 42.93% in August and September respectively.

GAC Group

GAC Group reported a 4.75% year-on-year decrease in September auto sales, posting downturn for three consecutive months.

The group saw its PV sales volume in September edge down 3.82% to 188,376 units. Of that, SUV sales tumbled 20.29% over a year ago to 78,018 units, which should be entirely blamed for the total PV sales decline.

Aside from GAC Motor and GAC FCA, the other subsidiaries all achieved sales growth in September.

（Photo source: Honda China)

GAC Honda recorded a slight growth of 1.44% with 70,660 new vehicles sold in September. The sales volume of the tenth-generation Accord rose 9.9% to 20,436 units, and 16,545 units of the new Crider were sold, topping 10,000 units for seven straight months.

GAC Toyota also obtained increase in both Sept. and year-to-date sales. Last month, the automaker sold 17,316 units of the eighth-generation Camry (+18%), 22,035 units of the Levin family (+7%) and 9,665 units of the all-new Highlander.

GAC Motor suffered its third-month-in-a-row decrease in monthly sales. For the first nine months of 2019, the group’s self-owned PV arm got its only sales growth in June.

Changan Automobile

China's Changan Automobile sold 159,848 vehicles in September, down by 8% from the year-ago period.

Due to the sharp decrease before July, the carmaker still suffered a rather big decrease of 23.6% in year-to-date sales.

Besides, 965 new energy vehicles were sold in September, making the Jan.-Sept. NEV sales volume total 29,048 units.

Regarding the performance of each subsidiary, Hefei Changan boasted the biggest year-on-year growth in Sept. sales and the smallest decline in year-to-date sales. The Hefei-based subsidiary has received RMB 300 million worth of subsidy for the new model R&D and RMB 121 million of subsidy for fixed asset investment from Hefei High-tech Industrial Development District.

Two major joint ventures—Changan Ford and Changan Mazda—recorded double-digit decline in Sept. sales. In late September, Changan Automobile cemented the partnership with Ford Motor to speed up the product upgrade and manufacturing strength of their joint venture, namely, Changan Ford.

Geely Automobile

Geely Automobile sold 113,832 new vehicles in September, a month-on-month growth of 12%, the automaker said on October 10.

The sales number still represented a decrease of 9% from the same period last year, while 10% percentage points less than the decline in August sales.

（Photo source: Geely)

Among the vehicles sold in September, 8,765 units were new energy and electrified vehicles (NEEVs). Meanwhile, year-to-date NEEV sales skyrocketed 80% over a year earlier, according to a posting on Geely's WeChat account.

Moreover, a total of 13,613 Lynk & Co-branded vehicles were sold last month, versus 10,982 units for the month of August.

Besides, the automaker exported 2,663 vehicles last month with an evident increase of 15% over the previous year.

For the first nine months, the company's auto sales volume totaled 958,110 units, sliding 16% compared with the prior-year period, completing 70% of Geely Automobile's revised full-year sales target in 2019.

Great Wall Motor

Great Wall Motor said its September sales jumped 15.33% from a year earlier to 100,019 units. As of year-to-date sales, the automaker sold 724,113 new vehicles in total, up by 7.01% year on year.

Export volume in September leapt 20.34% to 5,318 units, making the volume for the first nine months aggregate 50,754 units.

Haval, the leading SUV brand in China, maintained a double-digit growth in September. Driving forces partly came from some relatively new products, such as the Haval F5 and F7. Besides, the sales volume of the Haval M6 skyrocketed 131.47% from the previous year.

（Photo source: ORA)

The BEV-focused ORA sold 1,877 cars in September. The sales of the ORA iQ plunged 76.38% from the year-ago period, whereas the ORA R1's participation still made the brand's total sales grow positively. For the first three quarters, the young NEV brand sold 32,186 vehicles in total.

Chery Holding

Chery Holding reported an auto sales volume of 68,358 vehicles for September, up by 5% month on month and climbing 2.4% year on year.

Export volume in September reached 8,572 units, growing 10.8% compared with the same period a year ago, said the auto group.

For the first nine months, Chery Holding sold 506,820 vehicles in total, of which the sales volume of self-owned models rose 6.4% from the previous year.

（Photo source: Chery Automobile)

Driven by such hotter-selling models as the all-new Tiggo 8, the Tiggo 5 x HERO and the Arrizo GX Pro & the Arrizo 5 Pro, Chery Automobile saw its Sept. sales grow 12.6% from a year earlier and jump 16% from the previous month.

For the first three quarters, Chery Automobile's domestic sales were increased by 4.8% from the year-prior.

Jetour, a car brand under Chery Commercial Vehicle, witnessed its sales zoom up 76.9% from a year ago to 13,758 units in September. Compared with August, the brand also achieved a slight growth of 1.5%.

BYD

BYD saw its new energy vehicle (NEV) sales steadily rise for the first nine months of 2019, while sharply decline in September.

The company sold 192,620 NEVs through September, posting a year-on-year jump of 34.31%. Of that, PV sales volume leapt 37.37% to 185,919 units, while its growth was somewhat offset by the decline in CV sales.

Due to the substantial decrease in oil-fueled vehicles, BYD still faced downturn in total auto sales for the first three quarters.

In September, BYD's NEV sales volume was more than halved over the previous year, which directly brought down the entire auto sales. Besides, compared with August, its NEV sales still showed a double-digit drop.

（Photo source: BYD's WeChat account)

Both new energy PV and CV sectors posted nosedive in Sept. sales. PV sales reached 13,048 units with its BEV and PHEV sales plummeting 39.28% and 55.9% respectively over the year-ago period.

JAC Motors

JAC Motors got an auto sales volume of 31,697 units in September, a decline of 8.7% compared with the same period last year. Total sales in the first nine months slid 11.27% to 320,816 units.

In September, both PV and CV sectors chalked up year-on-year decrease. Due to the sharp decline in MPV and car sales, PV sales fell 9.38% to 12,986 units despite a 56.85% year-on-year surge in SUV sales.

（Photo source: JAC Motors)

Among the PVs sold last month, 5,116 units were BEVs, down by 24.17% from the prior-year period. However, Jan.-Sept. pure electric PV sales still leapt 29.82% to 49,028 units.

Export volume displayed a slight growth of 1.53% in September. For the first nine months, the group exported 36,348 vehicles in total with a slump of 44.63%.