Summary: Sales of own brand passenger automobile in May

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai) - According to Gasgoo.com (Chinese) statistics, sales of domestic own brand automobiles increased 13.4 percent in May, slightly above the industry average growth rate of 11.8 percent. A total of 411,700 Chinese passenger automobiles were sold over the course of the month. The recent automobile exhibitions in Beijing and Shanghai were major factors in encouraging stable automobile consumption this year. However, sales growth rates for own brand automobiles did slightly fall from April to May. 2.25 million own brand vehicles were sold over the first five months of the year, representing year-on-year growth of 24.9 percent.

Great Wall Motor was China's best performing own brand manufacturer in May. It was followed by Geely Automobile, Changan Automobile, BYD, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Chery Automobile, SAIC Motor, Brilliance Automobile, Jianghuai Automobile and Dongfeng Liuzhou. Great Wall, Geely, Changan, BYD, SAIC-GM-Wuling and Chery each sold over 30,000 vehicles. Combined, these six manufacturers sold 237,100 vehicles, constituting 27.65 percent of all own brand automobiles sold in May. None of the other own brands were able to break the 20,000 sales barrier in May.

Changan posted a sales growth rate of 72.4 percent. New models, such as Eado, CS35 and Yuexiang, were key in aiding the manufacturer's impressive growth. Geely's sales growth was over 40 percent, while Great Wall and BYD also reported sales growth rates of over 25 percent.

Among the other own brand manufacturers, SAIC and Dongfeng Liuzhou all posted stable growth rates, while SAIC-GM-Wuling and JAC's sales increased slightly. By comparison, Chery and Brilliance both suffered negative sales growth, with sales of the former plummeting 35.1 percent.

Looking at cumulative sales results for January to May, Great Wall still came out on top with 255,000 sales. It was followed by Geely, SAIC-GM-Wuling, BYD, Changan, Chery, JAC, SAIC, Brilliance and Dongfeng Liuzhou. The former five manufacturers' cumulative sales volumes exceeded 200,000 units, while Chery's total sales fell just under the 200,000 sales mark. No other own brands were able to sell over 100,000 vehicles during the five month time period.

Aside from the major sales decline suffered by Chery, the other nine own brand manufacturers all posted positive year-on-year sales growth rates. Changan's year-on-year sales growth was the highest at 111.6 percent. SAIC-GM-Wuling, Dongfeng Liuzhou, Geely, BYD, JAC and Brilliance all reported sales growth rates of over 20 percent.