Gasgoo summarized the sales data showing how many vehicles were delivered in China last month by the four major Japanese automakers. Toyota was the only one on the list that attained positive year-on-year (YoY) growth in September sales. Nissan took the championship by monthly sales. In addition, Honda and Mazda suffered YoY decline in both September sales and year-to-date (YTD) sales.
Nissan
In September, Nissan vehicle sales in China edged down 0.8% from a year earlier to 141,195 units (including imported vehicles), while evidently climbed 11.1% over the performance in the previous month, according to the data released by the automaker.
The sales of the PV units, including Dongfeng Nissan and Dongfeng Venucia, totaled 117,532 units last month, slightly dropping 0.6% from the previous year. However, it still gained a positive YoY growth of 8.3% in terms of YTD sales with 914,670 vehicles handed over during the first nine months. Such core models as the Sylphy, X-TRAIL, Qashqai, Teana, Venucia D60, Venucia T70 and Venucia T90 has jointly boosted the overall sales performance so far this year.
The sales of the CV units (including Dongfeng Automobile Co., and Zhengzhou-Nissan) edged down 0.4% over a year ago to 19,546 units, among which the sales of Dongfeng Automobile Co. rose 2.7% YoY to 13,891 units. For the first nine months, the cumulative sales for CV units totaled 149,914 units, growing 5.9% compared with the same period a year ago.
Toyota
Toyota Motor reported a YoY jump of 18% in sales with nearly 140,000 vehicles delivered in China last month, achieving YoY growth for 7 consecutively months. For the first three quarters, the Japanese automaker handed over a total of 1,081,500 vehicles in the world’s largest auto markets with a YoY increase of 12.6%, having its Jan-Sept sales exceed 1 million units for the first time in history.
Benefitting from the tariff reduction policy coming into effect from July, the premium car brand Lexus maintained the strong sales performances from the previous two months with its September sales surging 36% to around 16,000 units in China.
Several major models had blooming sales performances last month. The sales of the Corolla in China rose 7% YoY to 32,400 units. Deliveries of the Levin and the Camry reached 19,400 units and 16,500 units respectively.
Honda
Honda Motor posted a YoY sales drop of 6% with 132,755 vehicles delivered in China last month, according to the sales data released by Honda China. For the first nine months, the Japanese automaker sold 965,004 vehicles in the world's largest auto market with a YoY decline of 6.9%.
GAC Honda's sales in September amounted to 64,858 units, edging down 3.5% over a year ago. During the first three quarters, the joint venture saw its year-to-date (YTD) sales slightly fall 0.8% to 515,705.
The sales of Honda-branded cars reached 64,100 units, shrinking 2.4% over a year earlier. However, its YTD sales represented a tiny positive growth of 0.1% compared with the same period a year ago. The premium brand Acura still failed to bounce back from the previous depressed performances. Last month, it delivered only 758 vehicles, suffering a YoY plunge of 52.3%. Its YTD sales were 6,019 units, 42.9% less than that of the previous year.
Dongfeng Honda posted a YoY drop of 8.3% with 67,897 vehicles handed over last month. Its Jan-to-Sept sales declined 13.1% YoY as well to 449,299 units. Apart from the CIVIC and the XR-V, most models of Dongfeng Honda faced YoY reduction in September. The CIVIC remained the leadership among all models of the joint venture with its September sales surging 45.2% to 23,277 units.
Mazda
Mazda delivered 21,910 vehicles in China last month, which slumped 25.4% compared with the previous year, according to the retail sales data released by Mazda Motor (China) Co., Ltd a few days ago.
For the first nine months, the Japanese automaker saw its sales in China edge down 1.3% YoY to 210,715 units, the automaker said.
As to the sales performances of two major marketing channels, FAW Mazda's YTD sales dropped 4.9% from a year earlier to 84,331 units, while Changan Mazda's YTD sales reached 126,384 units with a slight YoY growth of 1.2%.
Gasgoo compiled its sales data of recent months and found out that Mazda has been suffering YoY drop in monthly sales from May to September.
