Summary: Chinese small car sales from January to October of 2014

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai) - The small car segment remains one of the most important in the Chinese passenger automobile market, with its total sales volume only exceeded by those of compact sedans and SUVs. Over ten percent of Chinese passenger automobile sales are of small cars. However, that share has been going down over the years due to decreasing prices being met with consumers preferring increasingly expensive vehicles, as well as lack of attention from manufacturers.

According to statistics from Gasgoo.com (Chinese), the small car market has continued its downward trend this year. Cumulative small care sales for the first ten months of the year totaled 1.71 million units, down 1.4 percent from the 1.73 million units sold a year ago. Likewise, the percentage of the Chinese passenger automobile market that small car sales accounted for 11.6 percent of sales this year, down 1.7 percent from a year ago.

Despite the fact that consumer tastes are shifting away from small car purchases, the segment remains a crucial part of the Chinese passenger automobile market.

Own brand manufacturers’ poor performance have hindered the small car segment a great deal. A total of 516,700 own brand small cars were sold from January to October of this year. The figure is 20.6 percent less than the amount sold over the first ten months of 2013. Own brands constitute 30.2 percent of all small car sales this year, down 7.3 percent from a year ago. Part of this decline is due to the fact that major own brand manufacturers such as Chery and BYD have started to shift their attentions from the segment, leaving smaller manufacturers like Tianjin FAW Car in the market, which are releasing very few new models.

Sales of American-brand small cars have also decreased from last year, with only 274,800 vehicles sold from January to October. Worth pointing out is the lack of new American small cars releases over the last few years.

On the other hand, sales of Japanese and Korean compact cars are on the rise, which is due in large part to the slew of new releases such as the Yaris, New Vios and New Fit. Japanese and Korean sales for the ten month period totaled 425,000 units and 328,800 units, respectively. These two figures respectively represent year-on-year growth of 45.5 percent and 12.4 percent.

The Chevrolet New Sail was the best selling small car for the ten month period between January and October. It was followed by Hyundai Verna, VW Polo, Kia K2, Toyota, Vios, Geely MK2, Toyota Yaris, Changan Young V3, BAIC Beijing E Series and Honda New Fit.

Despite leading the sales charts, sales of the New Sail have fallen 12 percent from the previous year. By comparison, sales of the Verna grew nearly 20 percent, with total sales just over 4,000 units behind that of the New Sail. Meanwhile, the number three VW Polo and number four Kia K2 posted year-on-year sales growth of 1.2 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively.