Summary: Performances of major domestic Chinese automobile manufacturers in January

All of the major Chinese automobile manufacturing companies have reached their official sales reports for the month of January, which have been compiled by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. The statistics show that a majority of domestic manufacturers achieved positive year-on-year sales growth rates, with some of the companies reporting very high rates.

Over half of local Chinese automobile sales in January came from SAIC Group, which sold a total of 629,500 vehicles, up a slightly 0.32% year-on-year. The company’s two major joint ventures, Shanghai VW and Shanghai GM, maintained steady sales growth. Shanghai VW, which sells both the VW and Skoda brands, sold a total of 213,717 vehicles, up 2.61%. The new Tiguan L and Tiguan 1.4T variants contributed a great deal so Shanghai VW’s total sales performance. Shanghai GM, meanwhile, sold a total of 179,789 vehicles, up 3.88% year-on-year. According to the JV’s figures, sales of the Cadillac vehicles in January exceeded 18,000 units, growing 116% year-on-year and marking a new record high for the brand. Meanwhile, sales of the Buick GL8 MPV increased 62% year-on-year.

SAIC’s other major JV, SAIC-GM-Wuling, saw its sales fell 13.33% to 182,156 units sold in January. That sales figure is a full 28.9% than the over 250,000 units sold in December of last year. The decline in sales is attributed to decreasing sales of the Wuling Hongguang, Baojun 730 and Baojun 560.

SAIC’s fully local brands saw significant positive year-on-year sales growth in January. SAIC Car’s monthly sales volume exceeded the 40,000 unit mark, marking year-in-year growth of 71%. The Roewe RX5 has been maintaining strong monthly sales of around 20,000 units, while sales of the Roewe 360 and Roewe 350 were also commendable. Due to the fact that new products are scheduled to be released and production capacity planned to expand, SAIC Car’s performance is expected to reach new heights this year.

The GAC Group sold a total of 167,968 vehicles in January, representing year-on-year growth of 28.87%. Among GAC’s businesses, GAC Motor with its Trumpchi brand performed very strongly, accumulating a total of 46,273 sales over the course of the month, up 58.66% year-on-year. The Trumpchi GS4 and Trumpchi GS8 have successfully made a name for themselves in the SUV market, with the latter being targeted at the promising mid-premium segment. Sales of the GS8 totaled 9,418 units, while the much more established GS4 successfully brought in 34,000 orders, making it the best-selling SUV model in the country.

In addition to GAC Motor and its Trumpchi brand, GAC Group’s successful performance in January was due in large part to the Guangqi Honda and GAC Toyota JVs. Guangqi Honda accumulated a total of 52,344 sales, up 21.71% year-on-year, while monthly sales of GAC Toyota totaled 45,372 units, representing an increase of 0.81% year-on-year.

Changan Automobile exceeded Geely in January, with monthly sales of 291,000 units. Sales of Changan’s own brand vehicles, which includes both passenger and commercial vehicles, totaled 191,000 units. Own brand sales accounted for 65% of Changan’s total sales, with 138,000 of those sales being passenger automobile models. The CS75 continues to be a major source of Changan’s sales, with a total of 26,492 units being sold in January. Sedan models like the Eado and Yuexiang also performed excellently.