Summary: Chinese passenger automobile market in 2014

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai) - A total of 18.47 million automobiles were sold in China in 2014, representing year-on-year growth of 13 percent. According to statistics from Gasgoo.com (Chinese), FAW Volkswagen was the country’s most successful manufacturer in terms of passenger automobile sales this year. It was followed by Shanghai VW, Shanghai GM, Beijing Hyundai, Dongfeng Nissan, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Changan Ford, Changan Automobile, Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën and Dongfeng Yueda Kia.

FAW-VW has benefited from commendable sales growth of 17.8 percent to soar to the head of the Chinese passenger automobile market this year, pulling ahead of fellow VW-affiliated joint venture Shanghai VW. FAW-VW led the monthly sales charts for seven out of 12 months this year.

Although surpassed by FAW-VW, Shanghai VW still posted strong sales growth of 13.1 percent last year. While its sales far exceeded those of FAW-VW and Shanghai GM over the first two months of the year, the joint venture suffered from reconstructing of its production assembly line.

Shanghai GM, the top performing manufacturer in the Chinese passenger automobile market in 2013, also reported respectable sales growth of 11.8 percent. Shanghai GM’s best performance last year was in December, where its sales of nearly 20,000 units marked a new monthly sales record.

Beijing Hyundai and Dongfeng Nissan’s sales growth were in the single digits. 2014 marks the second year that Beijing Hyundai sold over one million vehicles. The joint venture sold 116,100 vehicles in December, just a few thousand vehicles short of big three enterprise Shanghai VW.

Changan Ford, with its sales growth of 18.1 percent, was exceeded by SAIC-GM-Wuling, whose sales grew nearly 50 percent. SAIC-GM-Wuling has benefited strongly from the Baojun 730 and Wuling Hongguang. Both joint ventures will need an influx of new products to maintain strong sales growth.

Changan Automobile has shown itself to be a surprising success. Changan has flown on the wings of near 50 percent sales growth to become the only own brand manufacturer to enter the top ten sales rankings. Meanwhile, Great Wall has fallen out of the top ten.