Honda, Nissan, Mazda China sales down in May, only Toyota edges up

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Among four major Japanese automakers, only Toyota sustained a year-on-year growth in its China sales for the month of May. Honda, Nissan, and Mazda's China businesses all posted downturn movement in their May sales. Of them, Mazda faced the biggest drop.

Toyota still topped the other three companies with its China sales amounting to 168,900 units last month. Although the company saw the growth in monthly China sales shrink to 1.5% in May from 12.2% in April, it was the only one among the four Japanese automakers to maintain increase so far this year.

Wildlander; photo credit: GAC Toyota

For the first five months of the year, Toyota recorded a sales volume topping 80,000 units for its China market.

Toyota is going to roll out a number of new models to the world's largest auto market this year, including the mid-cycle refreshed version of the IZOA, the Crown Kluger, the Lingshang, and the all-new Highlander.

As for NEV offensive, the automaker is trying to speed up its paces. At the Auto Shanghai 2021, Toyota revealed that it planned to introduce to China over 30 electrified models under both Toyota and Lexus brands by 2025, including BEVs, PHEVs, HEVs, and FCVs, encouraged by China's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

Honda delivered 128,713 new vehicles in China last month, posting a year-on-year drop of 4.1%, the first-time decrease after 10 consecutive months of increase.

Civic; photo credit: Dongfeng Honda

The decrease was attributed to the decline in GAC Honda's deliveries. Retailing 62,373 vehicles, the joint venture with GAC Group saw its monthly deliveries drop 9.2% compared to year-ago period. However, Dongfeng Honda still scored a year-on-year growth of 1.2% by handing over 66,340 vehicles to consumers.

In May, a total of 20,087 consumers in China took delivery of Honda's vehicles armed with the hybrid powertrain system “Sport Hybrid”, representing a growth of 21.7% from a year earlier.

As of May 31, 2021, Honda witnessed its year-to-date China deliveries leap 42.3% year over year to 668,367 units, 96,877 units of which were powered by “Sport Hybrid” system.

Nissan's China retail sales were down 14.6% year over year to 111,096 units in May, marking an end to an eight-straight-month growth.

The PV business unit of Dongfeng Motor Company Limited (DFL) sold 88,441 new vehicles last month, posting a 16.1% year-on-year decline. To be specific, the retail sales of Nissan-branded models reached 82,086 units, while 6,355 consumers took delivery of Venucia-branded cars.

X-TRAIL; photo credit: Dongfeng Nissan

Year-to-date retail sales for Nissan's China business still jumped 28.8% to 591,745 units, 479,357 units of which were contributed by DFL's PV business unit.

As for key models, the Jan.-May deliveries of the seventh-generation ALTIMA and the Sylphy series amounted to 57,658 units and 208,659 units, up 69.9% and 40% year over year respectively. The Jan.-May deliveries of Nissan-branded SUVs reached 156,713 units (+28.8% YoY), including 70,305 X-TRAILs (+32.8% YoY) and 66,029 Qashqais (+38.4% YoY).

Mazda's China retail sales stood at 14,745 units in May, plunging 35.6% year on year, while also sliding 3.19% month on month. Due to the sharp decline in May sales, the growth in the year-to-date sales shrank to 4.7%.

Mazda3 Axela; photo credit: Changan Mazda

Both FAW Mazda and Changan Mazda met decrease last month. Retailing 10,360 vehicles, Changan Mazda posted a 17.8% decline, while FAW Mazda's deliveries plummeted 57.3% to 4,385 units.

With 6,800 vehicles delivered, the Mazda3 Axela was still the best-selling model in May. In the meantime, the deliveries of the Mazda6 Atenza and the Mazda CX-4 reached 2,490 units and 2,240 units respectively.