Summary: Chinese sedan market in April

Sedan sales in China continued their fall this year in April, with negative growth rates increasing from the previous month. According to statistics compiled by Gasgoo.com (Chinese), a total 832,332 sedans were sold in the country over the course of the month. Sedan sales accounted for 49.9% of all passenger automobiles sold in the country, down 3.6 percentage points from the previous year.

German brands led the sedan segment, with a total of 282,627 sedans being German models, representing a negative year-on-year sales growth rate of 3.1%. Just over one-third of all sedans sold in the country were German models.

Japanese sedans, which ranked second in the segment, performed very strongly, with sales increasing 10.7% year-on-year and totaling 197,707 units.

Chinese own brand manufacturers’ sedan sales fell 5.2% year-on-year. Own brand sales totaled 157,351 units.

American sedan sales also increased year-on-year in April. American sedan sales totaled 133,693 units, representing year-on-year growth of 1%.

Korean and French sedan sales fell 58.2% and 57.9% year-on-year, playing an increasingly insignificant part in the Chinese sedan market.

The A-class segment still makes up the majority of the sedan segment, with nearly two-thirds of all sedan models being A-class models. A-class sedan sales totaled 521,697 units, down 12.9% year-on-year. A0-class sedan sales fell 10.4%, totaling 96,335 units. B-class and C-class sedan sales totaled 153,637 units and 47,361 units, respectively. C-class sedan sales rose an impressing 38% year-on-year.

FAW Volkswagen was the top seller of sedan models in April, followed by Shanghai VW, Shanghai GM, Dongfeng Nissan, Geely Automobile, FAW Toyota, Changan Ford, Guangqi Honda, Brilliance BMW and Beijing Hyundai. The dominant three of FAW-VW, Shanghai VW and Shanghai GM continues to lead the rest of the market by a large margin, with their sales totaling 127,046 units, 108,799 units and 96,158 units, respectively. The only own brand model to make the top ten, Geely, saw its sales grow a considerable 27.7% over the course of the month, selling a total of 50,465 units. Brilliance BMW’s year-on-year sales growth rate of 19.6% was also very respectable.

Nine of the top ten most popular sedan models of the month were A-class models. The best-selling sedan models of the month were the Buick New Excelle, Nissan Bluebird Sylphy, VW Lavida, VW Jetta, Toyota Corolla, VW Sagitar, VW New Santana, VW New Bora, VW Magotan and Geely Emgrand EC7. The month’s best-selling model, the New Excelle leads the market by a hefty margin. A total of 32,962 New Excelles were sold, representing year-on-year growth of 38.6%. It was followed by the Bluebird Sylphy and Lavida, whose sales totaled 29,683 units and 28,277 units, respectively. 

The month’s top performing own brand sedan model was the Geely Emgrand EC7, whose sales totaled 16,069 units. It was surpassed by the VW New Magotan, the country’s best-performing B-class sedan model. Sales of the New Magotan totaled 16,163 units, representing year-on-year growth of 29.8%.