Honda China sales drop 7.8% year on year in July, while CR-V sales surge 160.3%

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Honda Motor's China sales declined 7.8% in July over the previous year to 105,960 units, according to the sales data released by Honda China. For the first seven months, the company saw its cumulative sales drop 6.6% year on year in the world's largest auto market to 715,060 units.

GAC Honda delivered 54,605 vehicles in total last month, a slight year-on-year drop of 0.8%. Meanwhile, the other joint venture Dongfeng Honda's July sales also declined 7.8% from the year-ago period to 105,960 units.

Thanks to the strong sales growth of the Fit, Honda brand of GAC Honda still saw its sales in July edge up 0.1% despite the sales reduction of most models. By the end of July, Honda brand's cumulative sales slightly climbed 0.7% over the previous year. The year-to-date sales of the Accord, the Odyssey, the City and the VEZEL all showed year-on-year decline to different degrees.

The premium brand Acura has seemingly been marginalized. In July, only 619 Acura cars were delivered, a year-on-year slump of 42%. The sales of the MDX, the RDX and the NSX were all fewer than 50 units.

Although the year-to-date sales of the CR-V still tumbled 48.5% compared with the year-ago period, the monthly sales of the SUV model presented a substantial year-on-year jump of 160.3% with its July sales totaling 10,377 units. However, Dongfeng Honda didn't dodge the overall sales shrink last month because most of its models suffered a year-on-year drop of over 20%.