The Sales of SUV Models in China’s Market Increased by 51.5% in the First Quarter

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai April 13^th)–The sales of vehicles in China’s market in March showed considerable upward trend compared with that in January and February. Among them, the sales of SUV models still reaped a rapid growth.

In March, the sales of vehicles in China’s market stood at 2.44 million units with a monthly rise of 54.3% and a yearly rise of 8.8% based on data released by China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on April 12. In the first three months of 2016, the vehicle sales amounted to 6.527 million units, an increase of 6% over a year before. Among them, the sales of passenger vehicles in China’s market in March totaled 2.506 million units with a monthly increase of 49.3% and a yearly increase of 6.8% which is 1% more than the average growth rate of the whole industry. In the first quarter, the sales of passenger vehicles reached 5.669 units, a rise of 6.8%, compared with that of last year.

Looking at different models, SUV still leads others by reaping a yearly rise of 51.1% in the first quarter. On the contrary, cars suffered a decrease of 9.3% in sales. And the sales of passenger van even declined by 33.1%.

In March, the sales of passenger vehicles of Chinese domestic brands reached 892 thousand units, increasing by 8.5% year on year. However, that only accounted for 43.4% of the total sales reaped by passenger vehicles, suffering a yearly decrease of 0.5%. Among them, the sales of cars of Chinese domestic brands reached 198 thousand units with a yearly decline of 21.3% and accounted for only 19.1% of total sales of cars models with a yearly decline of 4.4%. But the sales of SUV models of Chinese domestic brands amounted to 392 thousand units, increasing by 45.8% from a year earlier, and accounted for 56.5% of total sales of the SUV models, surpassing that of joint brands. It turns out that domestic brands in China now need to rely on SUV to take up larger market shares.

Besides, the sales of alternative energy vehicles still showed noticeable upward trend in the first quarter. Based on data from CAAM, in March, the sales of alternative energy vehicles reached 22,936 units, a rise of 4% from a year earlier. And the sales of alternative energy passenger vehicles took up about 70% with sales of 15,600 units while alternative energy commercial vehicles took up about 30% in March, showing negligible fluctuation from a year earlier, according to data released by China Passenger Cars Association. The quarterly sales of alternative energy vehicles reached 59,125 units, doubling that of last year. Among them, the sales of electric vehicles reached 42,131 units, increasing by 140% year on year, while that of plug-in electric vehicles totaled 15,994 units, increasing by 43% year on year.