Nov. 2020 update: sales of Chinese mainstream automobile groups

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- China auto sales reached 2.77 million units in Nov., growing 12.6% from a year earlier and showing year-on-year increase for the eighth month in a row, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

Mainstream automobile groups in China continued sales rebound last month. The companies hereby listed all achieved growth, some of which, such as GAC group, Changan Auto, Geely Auto and JAC Motors, have gained growth for eight straight months.

Notably, Great Wall Motor recorded this year's first-time growth in year-to-date sales.

SAIC Motor scores YoY sales growth for six straight months

SAIC Motor recorded a 10.65% year-on-year increase last month with 643,928 new vehicles sold. As of Nov., the China’s biggest automaker had posted growth for six consecutive months.

Thanks to the continuous rise, the decrease in year-to-date sales contracted to 12.39%, versus the 15.09% drop in Jan.-Oct. volume.

Among SAIC's subsidiaries, SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW) was ranked No.1 by monthly sales for the fourth month in a row, and achieved both year-on-year and month-on-month growth for eight straight months.

According to the subsidiary, its Wuling brand scored a 42% hike over a year ago with 142,421 vehicles sold last month, while the sales of New Baojun climbed 6% to 15,430 units.

Buick Excelle; photo credit: SAIC-GM

SAIC-GM outsold SAIC Volkswagen for the third time this year. According to the joint venture, the wholesale volume of Buick soared 54.6% year on year to 110,298 units, showing upward movement for eight consecutive months.

Among the subsidiaries with sales volume topping 100,000 units, SAIC-Volkswagen (SAIC VW) was the only one that faced decrease, while still attained a 4.26% increase compared to the previous month.

Dongfeng Motor Group's sales rise for eight consecutive months

Dongfeng Motor Group Company Limited (Dongfeng) saw its auto sales in Nov. climb 5.36% year on year, achieving growth for the eighth month in a row.

Due to the consecutive rises, the Wuhan-headquartered automaker witnessed the decrease in its year-to-date sales contracted to 4.57%, versus the 5.78% in the Jan.-Oct. volume.

Both PV and CV units boasted evident monthly increase. In November, PV sales rose 5.15% from a year ago to 256,083 units primarily thanks to the 12.26% increase in SUV sales. However, MPV sales still dipped 7.38%.

CV sales reached 47,409 units last month, up by 6.52% from the previous year.

Dongfeng Motor Company Limited posted a 4.24% year-on-year growth which largely resulted from the increase attained by Dongfeng Nissan and Zhengzhou Nissan.

LIFE; photo credit: Dongfeng Honda

Dongfeng Honda's Nov. sales jumped 17.43% from a year ago. The joint venture will put the LIFE onto the market on Dec. 15. The small-sized sedan is regarded as the sister model of GAC Honda's Fit.

DPCA's Nov. sales dwindled 22.1% over the previous year. The Sino-French joint venture plans to roll out 14 new models that meet Chinese consumers' demands in the following five years, according to the “YUAN +” strategic plan the company launched in October.

Changan Auto achieves 24.48% year-on-year leap in Nov. sales

Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. (Changan Auto) boasted a 24.5% year-on-year growth by selling 219,526 new vehicles last month. As of Nov., the automaker had achieved increase for the eighth month in a row.

As for year-to-date performance, the automaker sold a total of 1,803,047 vehicles, posting a double-digit growth of 15.3%.

Changan Auto said the sales of its self-owned brands jumped 23.5% from a year ago to 166,458 units, of which 113,885 units were PVs, representing a substantial leap of 36.4%.

Except Hefei Changan, the other subsidiaries all recorded year-on-year increase in Nov. sales. Changan Ford was honored the fastest-growing one, and witnessed its year-to-date sales surge 33.78%. Changan Mazda also scored a 7.54% growth compared to the year-ago level.

CS75; photo credit: Changan Auto

With respect to specific models, the sales of the Changan CS75, CS55 and CS35 SUVs reached 32,759 units, 14,295 units and 10,578 units in November. Notably, the CS55 saw its sales top 10,000 units for the third month in a row. The Eado sedan series had a sales volume of 21,148 units.

What's more, the sales of the UNI-T, the first production model of Changan's high-end product series UNI, stood at 10,061 units last month, surpassing 10,000 units for five consecutive months.

GAC Group's Nov. sales up 11.38% year on year

In November, GAC Group sold 217,654 vehicles, representing an increase of 11.38% compared with the same period of last year. The year-on-year decrease of the first eleven months narrowed to 2.21% with 1,834,697 vehicles sold during the period.

Among all subsidiaries, GAC Honda achieved the highest monthly sales last month. The joint venture's sales in November jumped 22.63% year on year to 86,314 units. And its YTD sales growth rate turned positive, an increase of 0.55%, for the first time in this year.

Camry Hybrid; photo credit: GAC Toyota

GAC Toyota still outperformed others in YTD sales growth change. In the past eleven months, the sales of the joint venture approached 700,000 units with a year-on-year increase of 11%. In November, sales of TNGA-based products were around 58,400 units, up 25% from a year earlier. The monthly sales of its hybrid vehicles exceeded 10,000 units last month, representing an increase of 15% compared with the same period of last year.

GAC Motor sold more than 40,000 vehicles last month with an increase of 5.31% year on year. Sales of GAC Trumpchi exceeded 30,000 units for the third consecutive month with 33,307 vehicles sold in November.

Geely Auto fulfills 88% of 2020's sales target as of Nov.

Geely Automobile Holdings Limited (called “Geely Auto” for short) and its subsidiaries sold a total of 150,517 new vehicles in November, an increase of roughly 5% from the year-ago period and up around 7% from the previous month, the company announced on December 7.

For the first eleven months, the Group (referring to Geely Auto and its subsidiaries) sold 1,166,015 vehicles in total, showing a 5% decrease over the prior-year period and fulfilling 88% of its revised full-year sales goal of 1.32 million units.

ICON; photo credit: Geely

Of the vehicles sold last month, 6,829 units were new energy and electrified vehicles (NEEVs), representing a month-on-month leap of 17.2%. The sales of sedans, SUVs and MPVs stood at 54,940 units, 92,992 units and 2,585 units respectively.

The Preface, the new compact sedan hit the market on Nov.1, had a monthly sales volume of 7,017 units. The automaker announced on Nov. 20 the first-time FOTA (firmware over-the-air) plan to improve the NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) of the Preface. Before long, the second-time OTA was launched on Dec. 1 to improve the car's infotainment system.

With 22,798 units sold, Lynk & Co brand recorded a 61% year-on-year hike in November and hit record-high monthly sales volume for the fifth month in a row.

Great Wall Motor gains 2020's first-time growth in YTD sales

Great Wall Motor (GWM) said its sales reached 145,240 units in November, jumping 26% from the previous year and rising 7% from the previous month. Its year-to-date sales inched up 0.75% to 961,489 units, showing year-on-year growth for the first time this year.

Four brands of GWM all achieved month-on-month growth in November. Compared to the previous year, only WEY failed to get increase.

The mainstay SUV brand Haval scored a 22% year-over-year jump last month with 101,812 vehicles sold. The sales of the Haval H6 leapt 32% from a year ago to 55,001 units, topping 50,000 units for the second month in a row. Hitting the market in August, the 3rd-generation H6 posted a Nov. sales volume of over 20,000 units.

The monthly pickup sales amounted to 22,610 units in Nov., surpassing 20,000 units for seven consecutive months. With 12,080 units sold last month, the P Series Pickup was once again honored the best-selling high-end pickup in China.

Tank 300; photo credit: GWM

WEY, GWM's self-owned premium SUV brand, faced a 13% decrease over the year-ago period, while posted a 0.51% growth compared to October. The Tank 300, the first model spawned from the “Tank · WEY”, is about to hit the market in mid-December.

Chery Holding boasts 36.4% year on year jump in Nov. sales

Chery Holding sold roughly 101,900 new vehicles in November, boasting a year-on-year surge of 36.4%, the best-ever figures in terms of both monthly sales and growth rate.

Of the vehicles sold last month, 7,623 units were new energy vehicles (NEVs), a year-over-year hike of 67.5%.

All-new Tiggo 8; photo credit: Chery Automobile

Thanks to the robust demands of Tiggo and Arrizo series, Chery Automobile saw its Nov. sales shoot up 52.6% from the year-ago period to 20,677 units.

Jetour, the product lineup launched in 2018, witnessed the monthly sales of the “70” and “90” series reach a record high of 20,507 units last month, 44% more than that of the year-ago level.

Chery Holding said its overseas businesses also achieved growth. For the first eleven months, the group exported 100,126 new vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 15%. As of Nov., Chery Holding has exported nearly 1.7 million units in total and owned over 8.9 million users worldwide.

BYD scores 137.88% robust surge in Nov. NEV sales

BYD's new vehicle sales reached 53,943 units in Nov., leaping 30.63% year on year and rising 13.01% month on month.

The sales of oil-fueled vehicles slid 9.38% from the previous year to 27,253 units last month, while grew 11.17% compared to October. Fuel-burning vehicle business started facing decrease in September after six-consecutive-month upturn.

BYD saw its NEV sales zoomed up 137.88% from the year-ago period to 26,690 units, of which 25,553 units were all-electric passenger vehicles, a remarkable year-on-year hike of 139.37%.

NEV sales have posted a solid rebound for three straight months. However, on the whole, BYD's NEV unit was still outperformed by the oil-fuel vehicle arm mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic and the phase-out of NEV subsidy starting the second half of 2019.

BYD Han EV; photo credit: BYD

The BYD Han also served a driving force to the overall NEV sales. With 10,105 units sold last month, the flagship sedan posted a 33.9% growth over the previous month.

Last month, 3,972 units were from BYD's Tang family. Besides, the sales of the Song, the Qin and the Yuan series reached 24,647 units (+21% MoM), 7,885 units (+15.8% MoM) and 1,260 units (+13.3% MoM) respectively. The BEV-focused e series had a sale volume of 3,258 units, a year-on-year increase of 33.5%.

JAC Motors' PV business outpaces CV in Nov.

JAC Motors' new vehicle sales leapt 23.67% from a year ago to 41,140 units last month. Year-to-date sales amounted to 416,732 units, representing an upward movement of 7.74%.

CV sales in Nov. grew 10.21% to 24,663 units, including 17,727 light-duty trucks (+6.55% YoY), 951 medium-duty trucks (-3.06% YoY) and 4,013 heavy-duty trucks (+17.75% YoY).

JAC Refine S5 Ⅱ; photo credit: JAC Motors

JAC Motors said its PV sales zoomed up 51.36% over a year earlier to 16,477 units in Nov., showing growth for the fifth month in a row. Both SUV and car units garnered year-over-year increase of over 34%.

JAC Volkswagen, the joint venture between Volkswagen Group and JAC Motors, was renamed earlier this month as Volkswagen (Anhui) Automotive Company Limited. With a 75% stake in the joint venture, Volkswagen takes over management control at Volkswagen (Anhui).

The joint venture's future products will ride on Volkswagen's Modular Electric Drive Matrix (MEB) platform with the aim of improving local R&D competence in the localization of MEB-base derivatives and capitalizing on global synergies, according to the German automaker. The first vehicle is expected to roll off the assembly line in 2023.