Summary: Sales performances of top performing own brand manufacturers in September

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai) - September was an especially good month for domestic own brand automobile manufacturers, being one of the only times since 2000 that their year-on-year sales growth rates surpassed those of rival Sino-foreign joint venture companies. Of the 1.13 million Chinese-made passenger automobiles sold in the country during the month, 373,000 were made by own brand manufacturers, 14.5 percent more than last September's amount. By comparison, sales of foreign branded Chinese vehicles fell 5.2 percent during the month. Own brands have managed to sell a total of 2.88 million passenger automobiles over the first three quarters of the year.

Great Wall was this September's top performing own brand manufacturer, having sold a total of 46,800 passenger automobiles. It was followed by Chery, Geely and BYD, all of which also managed to sell over 40,000 vehicles. FAW Group's sales totaled 24,600 automobiles, placing fifth in the overall rankings for September.

Chery, which was last September's best performing own brand, placed behind Great Wall this year, while previous number two BYD dropped two spots, finishing behind Geely.

Great Wall's performance during the month was especially noteworthy, with its total sales jumping a full 76.9 percent from September 2011. The Haval H6 and M4 SUVs both made large contributions to its overall performance, with the two models managing to bring in a total of 15,100 and 7,329 new orders, respectively. The Haval H6 also took the title of September's best selling SUV.

Geely also reported very high growth in September, with its sales increasing almost 30 percent. Its Emgrand EC7 luxury car made a significant contribution to FAW's overall sales. September sales of the EC7 totaled 15,900 units, over double the 7,375 units sold a year ago. Geely's sales surpassed those of BYD's, which increased slightly from September 2011 to September of this year.

By comparison, Chery and FAW Group experienced relatively significant negative sales growth in September. The former, which is currently in the process of streamlining its operations, reported a decline of 22.8 percent in its sales. FAW Car, meanwhile, saw its sales decrease 26 percent. Sales performances of every one of the manufacturer's models fell in September.

Four other own brands, Changan, Dongfeng, Jianghuai and SAIC all reported positive year-on-year sales growth in the double digits. Among them, Dongfeng's reported sales growth rate of 34.2 percent was especially noteworthy. The manufacturer's Venucia own brand, which was established in cooperation with Nissan, made a large contribution to its overall performance. Combined sales of the Venucia D50 and R50 in September totaled 3,060 units.

Looking at cumulative sales results for the first three quarters of the year, Chery remained the top selling own brand manufacturer, having sold a total of 392,000 vehicles over the nine month period. It was followed by Great Wall (335,000 sales), Geely (333,700) and BYD (303,900).

Great Wall, Geely, Dongfeng, SAIC and Brilliance all managed to sustain positive year-on-year sales growth over the first three quarters of the year. Among them, Dongfeng's year-on-year growth of 42.9 percent was the highest, which allowed it to place among this year's top ten performing own brands.

On the other end of the spectrum, Chery, BYD, FAW, Changan and Jianghuai experienced a fall in sales over the first three quarters of the year. FAW's sales fell a full 26.5 percent, while Jianghuai's decreased 21.1 percent.