Looking at overall statistics from the Chinese passenger automobile market over the first five months of the year, it is clear that all major own brand automotive manufacturers have been able to maintain positive growth into 2015. Among the leading own brand manufacturers, Changan Automobile sold the most passenger automobiles between January and May of this year. It was followed by Great Wall, Geely, BYD and Chery, in that order.
Changan sold a total of 454,299 vehicles over the first five months of the year. That figure represents positive sales growth of 35.6% and is over 130,000 units more than the amount the second place Great Wall sold over the same period of time. Changan was also the best-performing own brand automobile manufacturer last year. The manufacturer has managed to build on this basis into this year. All eyes are on Changan as the market enters the latter half of the year.
Despite the fact that Great Wall’s total sales of 317,984 units ranked it behind Changan, the manufacturer was able to achieve strong sales growth of 42.1%. The manufacturer owes a lot of this success to the outstanding performance of the Haval H6, which has been hugely successful. The Haval H2 and Haval H1 also managed to achieve commendable sales growth rates.
Third place entry Geely also managed to achieve respectable sales growth. The manufacturer sold a total of 221,125 units over the first five months of the year, representing positive sales growth of 27.8%. Two of Geely’s most successful models were the Emgrand EC7 and the GX7, whose sales totaled 89,118 units and 49,247 units, respectively.
BYD and Chery took the fourth and fifth places this year. BYD’s total sales volume for the first five months of the year totaled 192,210 units, representing very slight year-on-year growth of 0.5%. The two best-selling BYD models were the F3 and all-new S7, whose sales totaled 65,368 units and 47,721 units, respectively. Other popular BYD models include the F3 Surui, Qin, S6 and G5, with sales of the Qin over doubling from last year. Meanwhile, Chery’s sales during the same time period totaled 184,051 units, up 5.3% from the previous year. Chery’s best-selling model was the Tiggo 3, whose sales totaled 45,729 units, representing positive sales growth of 39.0%. The manufacturer also benefited from the sales of the new K50 and Arrizo, which totaled 14,761 units and 13,199 units, respectively.
