Honda's China auto sales dwindle in Nov. as two JVs sales slip

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Honda delivered a total of 1,240,384 vehicles in China from January to November with a year-on-year (YoY) decline of 5.6%. The year-to-date (YTD) sales for two joint ventures—GAC Honda and Dongfeng Honda were 650,725 units and 589,659 units, dropping 1.9% and 9.4% over a year earlier respectively, according to the sales data released by Honda China.

As for the performance in November, the Japanese automaker saw its sales in China fall 4.3% YoY to 136,714 units, among which 67,735 units from GAC Honda (shrinking 7.8% YoY) and 68,979 units from Dongfeng Honda (edging down 0.7% YoY).

This is the fifth month in a row for GAC Honda to see YoY sales decline. Last month, a total of 66,596 Honda branded vehicles were handed over. Three models—the Accord, the Fit and the CRIDER whose Nov. sales exceeded 10,000 units all gained positive YoY growth, yet they still failed to offset the negative downturn caused by other models.

The Acura brand has suffered consecutive YoY sales decline of over 40% since July. What is noteworthy that the Nov. sales of the RDX skyrocketed 160.4% from the previous year to 237 units.

Dongfeng Honda Nov. sales basically remained steady compared with the same period a year ago. Two major sales drivers—the CIVIC and the XR-V both saw an evident YoY increase exceeding 20% in Nov. sales. The sales of the INSPIRE, the company's latest flagship sedan model hitting the market on October 25, reached only 943 units last month, limited by less sufficient production capacity.