Summary: Passenger automobile sales of domestic manufacturers in January

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai) - According to China Passenger Car Association statistics compiled by Gasgoo.com (Chinese), passenger automobile sales in China fell 24 percent in January. A total of 965,200 vehicles were sold during the month, 24 percent lower than January 2011. Only 290,000 of those sales came from the top 21 domestic own brand manufacturers, compared to 447,100 vehicles sold last January. In comparison with joint ventures, whose sales fell 17.9 percent in the one year time span, domestic manufacturers performed relatively poorly, with their sales falling 35.1 percent on average.

Poor sales in the month have been attributed to the low number of working days this year, due to the early timing of the Spring Festival holiday.

Geely was the top selling domestic manufacturer in January with sales of 38,477 vehicles, followed by Chery (37,131 units), FAW Group (31,897), BYD (30,121), Great Wall (26,443), Dongfeng (18,799), Changan (16,329), Jianghuai (14,386), Brilliance (13,822) and Lifan (11,848). 

Of the 21 manufacturers, only Dongfeng and Lifan's sales increased from January 2011, growing 25 percent and 24.5 percent, respectively. The two manufacturers saw their respective rankings on the January sales charts jump from tenth and thirteenth to sixth and tenth. The Fengshen H30 hatchback and Fengxing Lingzhi minivan were among Dongfeng's most successful models, with their sales increasing 356.1 percent and 112.5 percent from last January, respectively. Sales of the Lifan 320 also grew a respectable 147.2 percent over the one year time period.

Last January's top three selling manufacturers, Chery, FAW and BYD, all dropped one place in the charts, while Jianghuai fell from sixth to eighth. These four manufacturers also had some of the highest sales decreases of the bunch: 53.4 percent, 44.4 percent, 42.1 percent and 57.5 percent, respectively. By comparison, this January's top selling manufacturer, Geely, witnessed a sales fall of 'only' 16.2 percent.

Great Wall, Changan and Brilliance's rankings remained unchanged. Great Wall sold 26,443 vehicles, equivalent to a fall of 32.8 percent.