Summary: Chinese passenger automobile sales in August 2017 at a glance

A total of 1.85 million passenger automobiles were sold in China in the month of August, up 5.3% from 1.75 million units sold in August of 2016. Great Wall’s Haval H6 was once again the best-selling model of the month, with a total 39,100 units sold. SAIC-GM-Wuling’s Baojun 510 overtook both the Buick New Excelle and SAIC-GM-Wuling Hongguang to finish in second place; a total 38,000 510s were sold over the course of the month. With a total 36,400 units sold, the New Excelle edged out the Hongguang, whose sales decreased again this month, with just 35,900 units sold.

On a whole the passenger automobile market underwent growth across the board, with nine models managing to accumulate monthly sales of at least 30,000 units. Most models achieved positive year-on-year sales growth, with the Geely Boyue, Shanghai GM Roewe RX5 and Honda CR-V posting especially high growth rates. Only four of the top 20 best-selling models saw their sales decrease year-on-year.

Sedan sales in August totaled 934,100 units, representing year-on-year growth of 2.0%, finally breaking a trend of constantly decreasing sales. The Buick New Excelle continued to lead the segment; its sales of 36,400 units represented strong year-on-year growth of 10.9%. Growth was widespread throughout the entire sedan segment, with only two models, the VW Jetta and VW Passat, recording sales decreases. 

VW’s performance in the segment was very strong, with its Jetta, Lavida and Sagitar all doing well in their respective sub-segments. Half of the top 10 best-selling sedan models were VWs. VW’s performance was especially evident in the midsize segment, with the only two midsize models making the top 20 sales chart being the VW Passat and VW-affiliated Audi A4, sales of which totaled 12,900 units.

Only two own brand models managed to make it into the top this month, Geely’s Emgrand EC7, whose sales totaled 16,800 units, and SAIC-GM-Wuling’s Baojun 310, whose sales totaled 14,600 units.

SUV sales in August totaled 781,600 units; that figure represented growth of 18.2% year-on-year and was also substantially higher than the amount sold the previous month. While the Great Wall Haval H6 continued to lead the segment, its lead over the second best-selling model, the SAIC-GM-Wuling Baojun 510, continued to shrink, with only 1,000 sales separating the two models. In third place was the GAC Trumpchi GS4, whose monthly sales totaled 27,800 units, up slightly from July.

Leading the segment in terms of growth rates were the Geely Boyue, Shanghai GM Roewe RX5, Honda CR-V and Geely Emgrand GS. The Boyue performed especially strongly in this regard, with its sales increasing 117.5%.

The newly released next generation Honda CR-V put forward a commendable performance. A total 17,800 CR-Vs were sold during the course of the month, representing year-on-year growth of 62.5%.

MPV sales in August totaled 134,000 units, down 25% year-on-year. As usual, the market was dominated by the SAIC-GM-Wuling Hongguang. Despite its sales falling 20.8%, sales of the Hongguang totaled 35,900 units, over double the amount of its nearest competitor, the fellow SAIC-GM-Wuling model, the Baojun 730. Sales of the Baojun 730 totaled 15,400 units, also down 46.7% year-on-year.

Both of the two joint venture MPV models in the top 10 saw their sales increase in August, with the Buick GL8 managing to accumulated 13,100 sales, ranking in third place, and the Honda Odyssey racking up 3,400 sales.

The all-new Lifan Xuanlang, which was officially released in March, performed very well. While its monthly sales of 3,500 units is still quite a far way behind offerings from rivals like Changan, Jianghuai and Dongfeng, it still possesses a lot of potential for future growth.