Summary: Own brand automobile manufacturers' performance in August

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai) - According to statistics from Gasgoo.com (Chinese), a total of 454,100 own brand passenger automobiles were sold in China in the month of August. The figure represents year-on-year growth of 10.0 percent. slightly lower than the market average growth rate of 10.1 percent. Meanwhile, own brands' share in the domestic passenger automobile market fell from 32.96 percent to 32.93 percent. Own brands' market share have been falling continuously for over a year now.

A total of 3.74 million own brand automobiles have been sold from January to August, representing year-on-year growth of 9.6 percent. By comparison, the passenger automobile market as a whole achieved a year-on-year growth rate of 13.9 percent for that time frame. Own brands' combined market share for the first eight months of the year was 32.4 percent, down 1.2 percent from 2013's figures.

Poor performance in the sedan segment are still the largest stumbling part for own brand manufacturers. A total of 179,400 own brand sedans were sold in August, nearly 20 percent less than the amount sold a year ago. Sales of SUVs and minivans, on the other hand, still continued to demonstrate stable growth. A total of 149,600 own brand SUVs and 125,100 own brand minivans were sold during the course of the month.

SAIC-GM-Wuling was August's best performing own brand manufacturer. In actuality, SAIC-GM-Wuling is a joint venture, however, as the majority of its sales are of own brand products, it is usually classified as an own brand. It was followed by Changan Automobile, Great Wall, Chery, BYD, Geely, Dongfeng Liuzhou, BAIC, FAW Car (not including the Mazda brand sales) and Zotye.

Great Wall sold a total of 41,400 vehicles over the course of the month, down 19.8 percent from the 51,700 vehicles it sold in August 2013. Sales of all of its models aside from the Haval H6 fell. The manufacturer has been forced to rely on its Haval H6, whose sales grew 22.6 percent, and Haval H2. While its SUV division reported year-on-year sales growth of 3.6 percent, its sedan sales fell a full 78.2 percent from August 2013 to August 2014. The manufacturer sold just 3,051 sedans over the course of the month, compared to 38,400 SUV sales.

Geely is another own brand who suffered from a poor sales performance in August. The manufacturer, which is currently undergoing internal reorganization, sold just 27,950 vehicles over the course of the month, down 20.9 percent from a year ago. BYD's sales fell 14.2 percent over the same time period.

On the other end of the spectrum, manufacturers such as BAIC have been making noticeable achievements thanks to the introduction of popular new models. BAIC's Weiwang M20 and Shenbao D50 have helped the manufacturer attain an impressive year-on-year sales growth rate of 187 percent. Zotye's new T600 similarly helped it achieve sales growth of over 50 percent.

Number one and two manufacturers SAIC-GM-Wuling and Changan have also been relying on new model launches. The former's Baojun 730 and Wuling Hongguang S have allowed it to achieve year-on-year sales growth of 46.8 percent, while the latter's Eado and CS75 have allowed it to attain 44.8 percent sales growth. Monthly sales volumes for the two manufacturers totaled 72,513 vehicles and 50,635 vehicles, respectively.

While Chery has halted production of several of its models due to its new marketing strategy, the new Tiggo 3, Tiggo 5 and E3 helped it achieve sales of 36,300 vehicles, representing year-on-year sales growth of 11.8 percent.