Toyota’s China sales rise in July, while Honda, Nissan, Mazda drop at two-digit rate

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- In July, three Japanese automakers, namely Honda Motor, Nissan Motor, Mazda Motor, all met double-digit slide in their China's deliveries. Apart from the longstanding chip lack, the resurgence of the virus and the torrential rain in Central China's Henan province also whittled down their sales. Toyota Motor was the only one achieving year-on-year rise last month.

According to Kyodo, Toyota Motor saw its China sales inch up 2.8% from a year ago to 170,200 units in July, representing a turnaround after the monthly volume fell 2.9% in June due to the chip supply constraint.

Both two joint ventures reported growth in their July retail sales. FAW-Toyota said it delivered roughly 79,000 new vehicles to score a 40% robust year-over-year increase. The sales of the Corolla and the all-new RAV4 reached around 32,200 units and 19,100 units respectively. With 12,900 units delivered, the Avalon recorded a monthly sales volume topping 10,000 units for the third straight month.

Camry; photo credit: GAC Toyota

GAC Toyota noted its July deliveries edge up 0.76% year on year to 75,100 units, nearly 30% of which was contributed by the all-new Camry. Meanwhile, the deliveries of the Levin series rose 5.3% to 21,300 units, for the fifth month in a row surpassing 20,000 units.

The premium brand Lexus also served as a sales driver to the overall deliveries, according to Kyodo's report, while the sales detail was not announced yet.

Affected by the chip shortage, the China business of Honda Motor Co., faced a 20.9% year-on-year drop in July with 108,139 new cars delivered. Of those, 18,866 units were armed with the hybrid powertrain system “Sport Hybrid”, rising 5.9% compared to the same period of 2020.

Both GAC Honda and Dongfeng Honda posted two-digit decrease in July deliveries. The joint venture with GAC Group delivered 62,030 new vehicles, representing a 10.3% decline from a year earlier. Meanwhile, 46,109 consumers took delivery of Dongfeng Honda's vehicles, a 31.6% drop year-over-year.

Civic; photo credit: Dongfeng Honda

The downward movement in Dongfeng Honda's monthly sales is likely to appear this month as the joint venture halted the production at its three plants in Wuhan on August 3 due to the resurgence of the coronavirus cases, according to a local media outlet. With a total annual capacity of 720,000 cars, these factories produce many key models including the CR-V, the Civic, and the XR-V.

Nissan Motor's China sales shrank 20.8% from the previous year to 95,783 units in July. The automaker said the decrease was attributable to such external factors as the coronavirus pandemic, shortage of raw material, and natural disaster.

It is noteworthy that in Zhengzhou, which was severely flooded last month, Dongfeng Nissan has assembly lines mainly producing key SUV models like the X-Trail and the Qashqai.

X-Trail; photo credit: Dongfeng Nissan

Last month, Dongfeng Motor Company Limited's passenger vehicle business unit delivered 79,328 new vehicles, which were 20.3% fewer than that of the prior-year period. The deliveries of the Nissan-branded vehicles stood at 73,072 units, including 11,044 seventh-generation Altimas, 40,124 Sylphys, 4,291 Tiidas, and 11,839 Qashqais.

Despite these challenges, Nissan Motor still rolled out the all-new X-Trail for Chinese market on July 30, said DFL's president Shohei Yamazaki.

Mazda Motor Corporation saw its China deliveries dip 24% over a year earlier, suffering two-digit decrease in monthly sales for four consecutive months. The decrease in the year-to-date deliveries widened to 4.1%, versus the 0.5% drop in the first-half volume.

Changan Mazda saw its July deliveries dwindle 8.4% to 10,025 units, while FAW-Mazda encountered a much steeper decline (-49% YoY) with a delivery volume of 3,467 vehicles.

Mazda3 Axela; photo credit: Changan Mazda

With 6,700 units delivered, the Mazda3 Axela was still the best-selling model in July. In the meantime, the deliveries of the Mazda CX-4 and CX-5 stood at 1,909 units and 1,872 units respectively.

Mazda Motor's China unit is going through a major business change. It was reported in late July that FAW Group would acquire 5% stake in Changan Mazda, currently a 50/50 joint venture between Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. and Mazda Motor Corporation. The acquisition is considered by industry insiders as the final solution to the long-rumored business merger of FAW-Mazda and Changan Mazda.