Mazda China sales up 33% to 17,795 in July

Shanghai August 9 (Gasgoo.com) Japanese automaker Mazda Motor Corp sold 17,795 vehicles in China in July, up 33% from a year earlier, creating its best-ever monthly sales record in the Chinese market, also its 22nd consecutive monthly growth, media reported recently.

In the period January to July, Mazda China reported sales of 124,372 units, up 35% year on year.

2010 Mazda 3

Though launching Mazda 3 in June, Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co Ltd, a three-way joint venture between Chongqing Changan Automobile Co, Ford Motor and Mazda Motor Co, saw its sales fall 17% year on year to 4,598 units in July.

The company thought the poor sales is partially because production of Mazda 3 has just been transferred to the Nanjing plant and the capacity is not back to normal yet. The other reason is that both Mazda 2 and Mazda 3 were not listed, as fuel-efficient models, for the subsidy, initially granted by the Chinese government.

Changan-Ford-Mazda sold 45,840 vehicles in the first seven months of this year, up 30% over the same period last year. However, the number is still far from its annual sales target of 100,000 units.

FAW Mazda Motor Sales Co Ltd, a joint venture between FAW Group and Mazda Motor Corporation, boosted its sales to 78,532 units in the first seven months of the year, an increase of 38.7% form a year earlier, of which Mazda 6 and Mazda Rui Yi sold 13,197 units in total, a year-on-year growth of nearly 70%.