China's SUV, MPV sales continue to drop in Jan

Shanghai, February 16 (Gasgoo.com) China sold 610,600 passenger vehicles in January 2009, up 44.4% month on month (m/m), but down 7.76% year on year (y/y), China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said to state media recently. The sales of sedans, SUV and MPVs continued to drop last month.

In January, the sales of SUVs and MPVs in the Chinese market plunged considerably from both one month and one year earlier. Last month, there were only 30,200 SUVs sold, down 25.6% m/ and down 11.1% y/y, while the MPV sales hit 11,900 units, down 14.58% m/m, and down 30.34% y/y.

Despite the general drop in last month's SUV sales, the Chevrolet Captiva, Honda CR-V, Nissan Qashqai and Jianghuai Ruiying saw their month-on-month growth, with Honda CR-V as the best-selling SUV in January when its sales reached 7,833 units, up 1.08% m/m and up 36.27% y/y.

In the MPV segment, only Honda Odyssey and Jianghuai Ruifeng saw their sales grow in January by 15.09% and 50.07% m/m to 1,861 units and 2,509 units, respectively. Sales of all other MPV models continue to fall last month, with Buick GL8 Firstland sales down 62.15% y/y to 1,337 units and Kia Carnival sales down 73.19% to a meager 37 units in January.  

China moved ahead of the United States in January car sales. China's overall vehicle sales, including trucks and buses, totaled 735,000 units in last month, a 14.4% drop from a year earlier and a more modest 0.8% slide from December. U.S. vehicle sales plunged by 37%, to a 26-year low at 656,976 units.

Car sales growth in China slowed to a single-digit rate last year for the first time in the past decade, spurring the government's steps to bolster the industry, one of the pillars for the world's third-largest economy.