As demand for automobiles in the country remains strong, Chinese minivan sales have continued to increase. While sales growth is not at the same level as 2014, it was still very high. While in 2014 sales growth rates of 40% to 50% were much easier to reach, last year’s automotive sales growth was a lot more subdued. According to statistics from Gasgoo.com (Chinese), minivan sales grew 11.2% from 1.72 million sales completed over the first 11 months of 2014 to 1.91 million sales completed over the first 11 months of 2015. Minivan sales accounted for 10.7% of all automobile sales made across the country in 2015, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous year.
Domestic own brand models continue to dominate the minivan segment. Own brand minivan sales from January to November totaled 1.69 million units, accounting for 88.7% of all minivan sales made in the country, up 2.8 percentage points from last year. By comparison, foreign brand minivan sales over the same time period totaled 216,780 units, down 10.6% year-on-year. Foreign-affiliated brands’ lagging performance in the minivan segment is in large part due to the lack of attention to introducing new minivan models.
SAIC-GM-Wuling’s Hongguang was the best-selling Chinese minivan from January to November. It was followed by the SAIC-GM-Wuling Baojun 730, Changan Honor, BAIC Weiwang M20, Dongfeng Fengxing Lingzhi, Dongfeng Xiaokang Fengguang 330, Buick GL8, JAC Refine, Honda Jade and Dongfeng Xiaokang Fengguang 360.
As usual the Hongguang continues to lead the minivan sales charts. Despite its sales performance decreasing 14.1%, the Hongguang still managed to accumulate a total of 578,787 sales from January to November. Over one-third of all minivans sold in the country were Hongguangs. SAIC-GM-Wuling’s newly-released Baojun 730 also performed strongly, accumulating sales of 273,379 units sold over the first 11 months of the year.
The Changan Honor, which was the second-best selling minivan in previous months, fell down to third place in the ranking. Sales of the Changan Honor from January to November totaled 133,216 units, up 1.3% year-on-year.
Two Dongfeng Xiaokang models, the Fengguang 330 and Fengguang 360, made the top ten sales charts. Sales of the Fengguang 330 over the time period totaled 123,653 units, representing year-on-year growth of 76.7%. Meanwhile, sales of the Fengguang 360 totaled 41,004 units from January to November.
Only two foreign-brand minivan models, the Buick GL8 and Honda Jade, made the top ten sales charts, with respective sales volumes of 72,716 units and 46,180 units. Year-on-year sales growth rates of the two models fell 3.2% and 17.0%, respectively.
