Summary: August 2011 growth trends for foreign joint ventures

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai September 26) - China Passenger Car Association statistics show that the 15 top foreign joint ventures in the country sold a total of 684,600 vehicles in China in August. The amount is 14.5 percent higher than the amount sold last August and 5.0 percent higher than the July sales result. Volkswagen sold the most, followed by General Motors, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Honda, Kia, PSA, Ford, Suzuki, Mazda, BMW, Daimler, Mitsubishi and Lotus. Among them, VW and GM's sales surpassed 100,000 units, totaling 188,200 and 104,800 units, respectively.

Compared with last August, the biggest changes this year were as follows: Hyundai was surpassed by both Toyota and Nissan, while Kia's sales surpassed PSA. In terms of year-on-year growth, Lotus and Kia were by far the quickest, increasing 46.1 percent and 40.0 percent respectively. Kia saw the majority of its sales coming from the new K5, K2 and Sportage-R, released in March, July and September of this year, respectively. Behind them were Toyota, Nissan and BMW, who saw respective growth rates of 37.4 percent, 30.7 percent and 36.5 percent. VW, GM and PSA grew slower at 10.3 percent, 26.1 percent and 22.7, respectively.

Hyundai and Daimler managed near even growth at 3.6 percent and 2.1 percent. At the other end of the spectrum, Honda, Suzuki, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Ford all saw their sales slip, with Mazda dropping the most at 29.3 percent. American Ford saw its sales fall 7.2 percent.

In terms of growth from July, eight of the manufacturers (VW, GM, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, PSA, Mitsubishi and Lotus) saw their sales increase, while the remaining seven (Nissan, Honda, Ford, Suzuki, Mazda, BMW and Daimler) experienced negative growth.