Sales of the Great Wall Haval H6 continue to fall in July

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai August 11) - As growth in the market as a whole continues to slow down, sales of the Great Wall Haval H6 have also begun to stutter. According to a report appearing in the National Business Daily today, July sales of the Haval H6 decreased 13%, with a total of 23,100 units sold over the course of the month.

July is not the first time sales of the Haval H6 (pictured), the country’s best-selling SUV, decreased. Sales of the SUV had already fallen over 4% in June, with monthly sales totaling 23,500 units.

Prior to this, monthly sales level of the H6 were above the 30,000 mark. This exceptional performance managed to outshine prestigious joint venture offerings like the VW Tiguan and Honda CR-V.

Many analysts believe that, as the leader of the own brand SUV segment, the Haval H6’s faltering performance may point be a bad sign for domestic manufacturers as a whole. The number of own brand models on the top ten SUV sales charts has decreased from eight in May to just four in June.

A Beijing Hyundai dealer offered an analysis: “[Recent market trends] are not only due to the number of new joint venture models, but more importantly prices for joint venture models are being slashed, causing own brand SUVs to gradually lose a lot of their competitive advantage.

This analysis is shown by Beijing Hyundai and Dongfeng Yueda Kia’s decisions to lower prices of their flagship SUVs. Prices of the Sportage and ix35 have been lowered to 109,800 RMB ($17,711) and 149,800 RMB ($24,162), respectively. By comparison, the Haval H6 is priced between 99,800 RMB and 162,800 RMB ($16,098-$26,259), while fellow own brand SUV is priced between 108,800 RMB and 144,800 RMB ($17,549-23,356).

Whether or not own brand SUVs will be able to compete with more reasonably priced joint venture SUVs remains to be seen.