According to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), the PV wholesale volume in China evidently dropped 12.7% over a year ago to 2,019,493 units in October, presenting year-on-year (YoY) drop for four consecutive months. The Oct. sales of the car, MPV and SUV were all less than that of a year ago (the "PV" mentioned here refers to cars, SUVs and MPVs locally produced in China).
By the end of October, China's PV wholesale volume cumulated to 18,933,137 units in 2018 with a YoY decrease of 0.7%. The SUV year-to-date (YTD) sales totaled 8,130,946 units, up by 1.4% from the year-ago period. Nevertheless, both car and MPV segments faced YoY drop in YTD sales.
The inventory pressure is getting increasingly higher for dealers with the sales continuously declining. The China Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) said that the Vehicle Inventory Alert Index (VIA) in October was 66.9%, 17 percentage higher than that of a year ago and the highest in the last three years. By October, China has faced the tenth month in the year that the VIA exceeded an official warning threshold.
The CPCA's data show that China's car sales dropped 8.8% YoY to 1.0064 million units in October and edged down 0.1% from the previous year to 9.4341 million units for the first ten months.
The Lavida and the Sylphy were the champion and runner-up of car model by Oct. sales. Both car models had sales exceeding 40,000 units in September and October and the sales gap between the Lavida and Sylphy has diminished to 1,251 units.
The Excelle, ranking the fourth on the list, saw its sales fall 7% over a year ago. Since the 2018 Buick Excelle hit the market in October last year, the sales of this car model had sharply declined to 12,017 units in June and then bounced back to over 29,000 units in September and October thanks to a price slash.
Last month, China's SUV wholesale volume shrank 15.1% from a year earlier to 874.2 thousand units. A total of 8.1335 million SUVs were sold through October with a YoY growth of 1.5%.
The Haval H6 still occupied the championship with its Oct. sales exceeding nearly 15 thousand units over the runner-up Tiguan. The automaker started a price cut activity on the Haval branded SUVs from September 1, which indeed boosted the sales performance. Especially, the Oct. sales of the Haval M6 soared 74% to 12,275 units.
The sales of the Honda XR-V presented a great YoY surge of 145.4% in October. Aside from a reasonable price benefit, the model also attracted a number of consumers by its favorable exterior, interior and powertrains.
