Gasgoo.com (Shanghai September 17) - Increasing competition in the Chinese subcompact market is starting to take its toll on local manufacturers. According to a Beijing News report appearing today, sales of the Great Wall Voleex C30 in the first six months of this year totaled 68,000 units, 10 percent less than the 76,861 units sold in the first half of 2011.
The C30 (pictured) was the eighth best selling subcompact in China last year. It has already fallen out of the top ten rankings for the first half of this year. The Shanghai GM's Buick Kaiyue Excelle led the charts, followed by Shanghai VW's New Bora and Lavida. Meanwhile, Geely's Emgrand EC7 usurped the C30 and BYD F3 to take the place of best selling own brand subcompact for the first half of the year.
Subcompact sales in China grew 10.2 percent over the first half of the year, with sales over the six month period totaling 2.87 million units. According to a recent study done by Sinotrust, subcompacts priced between 100,000 yuan and 150,000 yuan ($15,840-$23,760) are the largest passenger automobile segment by sales volume, responsible for 37.7 percent of all passenger vehicle sales. The study also revealed that consumers still tend to gravitate towards joint venture models.
