Dongfeng Honda CR-V March sales nosedives 93.6% YoY threatened by engine issue

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- GAC Honda and Dongfeng Honda posted a total delivery of 97,587 vehicles in March, dropping 13% year on year, according to the March sales report released by Honda China on April 3rd. To be specific, GAC Honda reached a delivery volume of 58,950 units last month, edging up 1.9% from a year earlier, while Dongfeng Honda suffered a year-on-year delivery decrease of 28.9% to 38,637 units, mainly affected by the declining sales of CR-V and CIVIC that involved engine quality issue.

In the first quarter of this year, delivery volume of GAC Honda and Dongfeng Honda reached 300,826 units in total, ticking down 2.3% over the previous year. Among that, GAC Honda boasted a year-on-year sales growth of 3.3% to 172,045 units, while Dongfeng Honda delivered 128,781 units during the first three months, falling 8.9% year on year. 

According to the data released, GAC Honda’s Honda brand achieved year-on-year increases in both March sales and cumulative sales of 2.2% and 3.7% respectively. As to models, Accord ranked first by March sales among Honda-branded models, with 19,506 units delivered last month, surging 50.0% year on year. Meanwhile, the cumulative deliveries of Accord also jumped 22.9% over the previous year to 49,676 units. Meanwhile, the deliveries of City, Fit and VEZEL faced year-on-year sales decreases in March of 33.1%, 18.3% and 24.2% to 3,727 units, 9,191 units and 8,918 units respectively. With regard to the high-end brand Acura, it only delivered 902 units in China last month, slipping back 13.7% from a year earlier.

As to Dongfeng Honda’s performance, haunted by the engine oil issue, only 916 units of CR-V were handed over in March, nosediving 93.6% year on year. The March deliveries of CIVIC, another model suffering the engine quality problem, dropped 16.5% from a year earlier to 13,586 units. Moreover, 4 models of Dongfeng Honda, SPIRIOR, ELYSION, JADE and UR-V, boasted year-on-year sales growth in March to different degrees. Especially, 3,390 units of UR-V were delivered last month, skyrocketing 200.8% year on year. Besides, Q1 deliveries of UR-V reached 11,875 units, splendidly rising 953.7% from the previous year.