September 2020 update: sales of Chinese mainstream automobile groups

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (the CAAM), China auto sales vigorously rose 12.8% from the previous year to 2.565 million units in September, posting double-digit growth for five consecutive months.

The robust rising momentum greatly resulted from the joint efforts automakers made to boost their sales. The automobile groups hereby compiled by Gasgoo all achieved year on year sales growth in September, some of which, such as GAC group, Changan Auto, Geely Auto and JAC Motors, have gained growth for six straight months.

Regarding year-to-date sales, Changan Auto and JAC Motors scored growth compared to the previous year, indicating that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on sales has been entirely offset by the successive increase achieved in the second and third quarters.

SAIC Motor garners four-straight-month YoY sales growth as of Sept.

With 602,318 new vehicles sold, SAIC Motor boasted a 9.51% year-on-year growth in Sept. sales, the Chinese largest automaker said on October 12.

Thanks to the four-consecutive-month increase in the Jun.-Sept. period, the year-on-year decrease in the company's year-to-date sales had contracted to 18.14%, indicating that the pandemic-caused impact was further attenuated.

Most subsidiaries succeeded in gaining growth last month. SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW) was once again honored the champion in terms of the Sept. sales and achieved year-on-year increase for the sixth month in a row.

Among 176,000 vehicles sold by SGMW in Sept., 118,027 units (+36% YoY) and 20,290 units (+22% YoY) were from Wuling and New Baojun brands respectively.

Wuling Victory; photo credit: SGMW

SGMW partly attributed its vigorous sales growth to its solid product strength and rich production matrix. The presale of the Wuling Victory four-seater family-use MPV, the first flagship model bearing Wuling's global silver badge, kicked off on September 28 and the order number has so far exceeded 10,000 units.

SAIC Volkswagen saw its Sept. sales edge down 1.19% year on year to 175,000 units, while SAIC-GM scored a 9.47% growth over the prior-year period with 153,326 vehicles sold.

Moreover, SAIC Motor said it sold in September roughly 40,000 new energy vehicles, which skyrocketed 223.8% from a year ago.

FAW Group sees sales growth of 18.2% in September

China's FAW Group sold 388,896 vehicles in September, jumping 18.2% from a year ago, according to corporate data.

Hongqi, the luxury brand under FAW Group, posted a solid year-on year sales growth of 85.9% in September, with 21,518 vehicles sold, a new high for the month. In the first three quarters, the brand's sales exceeded 130,000 vehicles, representing a jump of 104.4%.

Hongqi H9; photo credit: Hongqi

By the end of September, the luxury brand has completed 65% of its 200,000-unit annual sales target. To achieve the brand's annual goal, the average monthly sales for the last three months should be about 24,000, more than the monthly sales of September, known as the selling season of the industry.

FAW Jiefang, the group's truck subsidiary, sold more than 43,000 vehicles with a year-on-year growth of over 60%.

As to the joint ventures of the group, the combined sales in September reached 309,245 units, increasing 15.3% compared to the year-ago period. The monthly sales of FAW-VW saw a mild increase of 3.9% to 224,411 units, far more than those of FAW-Toyota (with 84,834 vehicles sold, up 62.6%) and FAW-Mazda (with 7,057 vehicles sold).

GAC Group's Sept. sales leap 15.59% year on year

GAC Group announced that its Sept. sales jump 15.59% year on year to 218,042 units, showing double-digit growth for the third month in a row.

For the first three quarters, the Guangzhou-based automobile group sold 1,407,167 vehicles in total, a year-over-year decrease of 6.69%, which were 3.18 percentage points lower than the decline in Jan.-Aug. sales.

As of September, GAC Group had completed 66.38% of its 2.12 million-unit annual sales target.

Breeze; photo credit: GAC Honda

GAC Honda sold 87,786 new vehicles last month, a 21.7% increase from a year earlier, maintaining a rising momentum from June.

GAC Toyota was the fastest-growing subsidiary in terms of Sept. sales performance. With 81,000 vehicles sold, the automaker boasted a 24.62% leap from the previous year. The sales of the Levin series, the Camry series and the YARiS family reached 26,313 units, 18,375 units and 10,608 units respectively.

GAC Motor achieved a robust 12.82% growth in Sept. sales. According to GAC Group, the sales of the Trumpchi GS4 series stood at 13,543 units and the sales of the Trumpchi M8 and M6 MPVs totaled 7,329 units (+35.87% YoY). 

GAC NE, GAC Group's NEV arm, recorded a sales hike of 75% in September by selling 7,006 vehicles. Of those 6,876 units were from the Aion series.

Changan Auto achieves YoY sales growth for six straight months

With 205,543 vehicles sold, Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. (Changan Auto) reported a 28.65% year-on-year leap in Sept. sales, achieving growth for six consecutive months.

Last month, both Chongqing Changan and Hefei Changan gained year-on-year sales growth of more than 50%. In terms of year-to-date performance, Hefei Changan was honored the fastest-growing subsidiary with its sales surging 154.19% to 165,645 units.

Regarding joint ventures, both Changan Ford and Changan Mazda nabbed double-digit growth in Sept. sales. For the first three quarters, Changan Ford succeeded in attaining a robust 29.65% jump, while Changan Mazda's sales edged down 1.58%.

Changan CS75 Plus; photo credit: Changan Auto

According to a posting on Changan Auto's WeChat account, the automaker sold in Sept. 153,039 new vehicles under its self-owned brands, a year-on-year leap of 31.9%.

The sales of the Changan CS75 SUVs reached 25,724 units in Sept., exceeding 20,000 units for the fifth month in a row. During the same period, the automaker sold 10,601 UNI-T compact SUVs, the first vehicle of the new product series “Yinli” (meaning “Gravity”), which surpassed 10,000 units for the third month in a row.

Geely Auto completes 66% of revised 2020 sales target as of Sept.

Geely Automobile Holdings Limited (called “Geely Auto” for short) and its subsidiaries sold a total of 126,365 new vehicles in September, an increase of roughly 11% from the year-ago period and up around 11% from the previous month.

Geometry C in "Inspiration Purple"; photo credit: Geely Holding

For the first three quarters, the group sold 875,472 vehicles in total, posting a 9% decline over the prior-year period and fulfilling 66% of its revised annual sales target of 1.32 million units.

Among the vehicles sold last month, 6,092 units were new energy and electrified vehicles (NEEVs), including the Geometry As, the Emgrand EVs and the Emgrand GSes, a month-on-month decrease of 7.8%.

Last month, Geely Auto sold 43,183 sedans, 79,633 SUVs and 3,549 MPVs. Notably, the sales of the Emgrand sedans reached 20,196 units in September and totaled 158,698 units for the first nine months. The Sept. combined sales of the Boyue and the Boyue PRO stood at 20,925 units.

During the same month, the sales volume of Lynk & Co-branded vehicles was 18,745 units, leaping around 38% year on year and achieving the brand's record high level in terms of single-month sales.

Great Wall Motor's four brands all gain YoY, MoM growth in Sept. sales

Great Wall Motor (GWM) said its vehicle sales vigorously grew 17.79% from a year earlier to 117,812 units last month. As of September, the Chinese biggest SUV and pickup manufacturer had achieved YoY sales growth for fifth month in a row.

Four brands—Haval, ORA, Great Wall Pickup and WEY—all achieved YoY and MoM growth in Sept. sales.

Last month, the sales of Haval SUV brand climbed 5.14% over a year ago to 79,120 units, the best-ever monthly figure achieved so far this year.

GWM's pickup sales zoomed up 67.29% year over year to 22,885 units last month, exceeding 20,000 units for five straight months. The sales of the P Series Pickup reached 11,200 units, topping 10,000 units for five consecutive months.

ORA Black Cat; photo credit: GWM

ORA, GWM's BEV-focused model, saw its Sept. sales skyrocket 252.64% over a year ago to 6,619 units, including 5,141 “Black Cat” cars (+201% YoY). The cumulative sales of the ORA “White Cat”, ORA's third mass-produced model, added up to 2,227 units since it hit the market in mid-July.

With 9,037 vehicles sold, WEY recorded a 3.86% year-on-year growth last month. As the biggest sales contributor, the VV6 had a sales volume of 5,206 units, a year-on-year growth of 2% and a month-on-month jump of 17%.

Chery Holding says export volume leaps 23.3% YoY in September

Chery Holding said its new vehicle sales in September reached 69,075 units, of which 10,565 vehicles were exported to overseas markets, representing a 23.3% year-on-year growth.

For the first three quarters, Chery Holding exported a total of 73,679 vehicles, which climbed 3.2% from the previous year. During this period, Chery Automobile saw its export volume leap 36.4% to 69,371 units.

Tiggo 8 Plus; photo credit: Chery Holding

Chery Automobile's Sept. sales rose 9.9% from a year earlier to 42,317 units. Specifically, 32,326 units were sold in domestic market, including 28,241 fuel-burning vehicles and 4,085 new energy vehicles, up 3.5% and 25.8% from the previous year respectively. Export volume for the month jumped 25.3% to 9,991 units.

As of September 2020, Chery Automobile had achieved YoY and MoM sales increase for four consecutive months thanks to its expanding product portfolio and greater efforts made for the so-called new marketing and new retail business models.

The sales of Chery Jaguar Land Rover and Cowin Auto amounted to 6,075 units and 3,743 units in September, soaring 30% and 74.5% over the year-ago period respectively.

JAC Motors begins to post growth in year-to-date sales

JAC Motor's new vehicle sales shot up 41.43% from a year ago to 44,830 units last month. Thanks to the consecutive year-on-year growth from April to September, the Hefei-based automaker started to post increase in its year-to-date sales.

CV sales in Sept. zoomed up 56.37% year on year to 29,259 units, including 21,118 light-duty trucks (+49.06%), 1,122 medium-duty trucks (+30.47%) and 5,410 heavy-duty trucks (+127.12%).

JAC Motor said its PV sales leapt 19.91% over a year earlier to 15,571 units in Sept., showing growth for the third month in a row. Both SUV and car units garnered year-over-year increase. Notably, the growth in car sales stood at up to 589.13%.

SOL X8; photo credit: JAC Motors

JAC Motors launched at the Auto China 2020 its all-new PV brand “SOL” (Chinese says “思皓”, Sihao), named same as the affordable-EV brand launched in 2018 by JAC-Volkswagen joint venture.

The automaker put the SOL X8, the first production model under SOL brand, onto the market at the same time. With 8 variants offered at one go, the new mid-sized SUV is priced from 83,800 yuan ($12,530) to 135,800 yuan ($20,305).

BYD boasts 45.32% YoY hike in Sept. new energy vehicle sales

Last month, BYD sold 42,183 new vehicles, a year-on-year growth of 3.57% and a month-on-month jump of 14.4%. For the first three quarters, the automaker saw its total sales slid 19.9% to 268,975 units.

The sales of oil-fueled vehicles shrank 17.55% over a year earlier in September, terminating a six-consecutive-month upward movement. However, BYD's year-to-date fuel-burning vehicle sales still rose 10.38% year over year to 158,034 units.

NEV sales reached 19,881 units last month, surging 45.32% and 30.09% over the previous year and the previous month respectively. The decrease in Jan.-Sept. NEV sales was contracted to 42.4%, versus the 49.11% plunge in Jan.-Aug. volume.

BYD Han EV; photo credit: BYD

Among the NEVs sold last month, 12,212 units were full-electric PVs, a year-on-year hike of 65.95% and a 29.72% leap compared to August.

From the year-to-date angle, oil-fueled vehicle business still outperformed the NEV unit in terms of both YoY change and sales volume. It is due quite as much to the pandemic-induced impact and the NEV subsidy phase-out starting the second half of 2019.

The BYD Han, a heavyweight full-sized premium sedan model hitting the market in July, had a sales volume of 5,612 units in September, a remarkable month-over-month growth of 40.3%.