The passenger automobile market in China has undergone more changes in the month of November, with Shanghai GM rising to the top of the month’s sales charts. November also marked the first month that SAIC-GM-Wuling has finished in the top four. The top ten automobile enterprises for November were Shanghai GM, FAW-VW, Shanghai VW, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Beijing Hyundai, Dongfeng Nissan, Changan Ford, Changan Automobile, Great Wall and Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën.
Looking at cumulative sales figures for the first 11 months of the year, FAW-VW remains the best performing automobile manufacturer, followed by Shanghai VW, Shanghai GM, Beijing Hyundai, Dongfeng Nissan, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Changan Ford, Changan Automobile, Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën and Dongfeng Yueda Kia.
November is only the second time this year that Shanghai GM has led the monthly sales charts. The joint venture sold a total of 151,400 vehicles, representing year-on-year growth of 3.7 percent. Shanghai GM has sold over 1.53 million vehicles over the first 11 months of the year, quite a bit behind both VW-affiliated joint ventures.
FAW-VW achieved year-on-year sales growth of 16.7 percent, with total sales reaching 146,700 vehicles. FAW-VW still looks set to be the year’s most successful automobile enterprise, with a total of 1.64 million vehicles sold over the first 11 months of the year, ahead of major rivals Shanghai VW and Shanghai GM.
Shanghai VW has also managed to post strong 10.2 percent year-on-year sales growth in November, with a total of 119,000 vehicles sold over the course of the month. The JV has sold 1.61 million vehicles sales over the first 11 months of the year.
November marked an important month for SAIC-GM-Wuling, as it was the first month the JV sold over 100,000 vehicles and the first time it ranked fourth in the monthly rankings. SAIC-GM-Wuling’s strong performance comes from its hot-selling Baojun 730 and Wuling Hongguang. Monthly sales of the Hongguang in November were just of 70,000 units, while those of the Baojun 730 broke the 30,000 sales mark. SAIC-GM-Wuling has sold 818,800 vehicles over the first 11 months of the year, representing year-on-year growth of 51 percent.
Monthly sales for Beijing Hyundai and Dongfeng Nissan totaled 990,000 vehicles and 931,000 vehicles, respectively. While the former figure represents year-on-year growth of 7.6 percent, the latter represents negative growth of 11.8 percent, due partly to Dongfeng Nissan’s exceptionally strong performance last November. Beijing Hyundai has sold just over one million vehicles since the beginning of the year, while Dongfeng Nissan has sold 852,600 over the same time period.
Great Wall was able to recover with strong sales of the Haval H2 and Haval H1, bringing it back into the top ten sales charts. Great Wall has sold 65,800 vehicles over the course of the month, representing year-on-year growth of 12.6 percent. Great Wall has only sold 544,200 vehicles since the beginning of the year.
Changan Automobile continued to perform strongly, with sales growing a full 37.7 percent. A total of 66,200 Changan automobiles were sold in November. Sales growth of the Honor, Eado, CS35 and CS75 were especially high, with monthly sales of the CS75 breaking the 10,000 units mark. Changan has sold 65,8100 vehicles from January to November.
