Chinese automakers saw their sales revive in August after getting through the hottest season. Gasgoo compiled the August sales data released by 9 major local automakers as below. Apart from Dongfeng Motor Group, Changan Automobile and Great Wall Motor, the other six automakers on the list all obtained positive year-on-year growth in August sales. Meanwhile, the three companies, who suffered year-on-year drop in monthly sales, also had negative growth in terms of Jan-Aug sales.
SAIC Motor
SAIC Motor reported a slight year-on-year growth of 0.3% in August sales with 528,438 vehicles delivered. For the first eight months, the automaker delivered 4,532,032 vehicles in total, an year-on-year increase of 9.1%.
The top 3 subsidiaries by August sales were SAIC-GM, SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC-GM-Wuling. Although the sales of both SAIC-GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling presented year-on-year drop in August sales, they achieved positive growth in terms of Jan-Aug sales thanks to the good performances made in previous months.
SAIC Motor PV saw its August sales jump 23% over the year-ago period to 50,006 units. Besides, the company boasted a year-on-year surge of 46.8% in Jan-Aug sales with 457,123 vehicles sold despite of somewhat fluctuant performances so far this year. The sales of the Roewe RX Series, the MG 6 and the Roewe ERX5 continued the upward momentum last month. The total NEV sales of the Roewe and the MG brands skyrocketed 260% year on year to 11,326 in August, exceeding 10,000 units for four consecutive months.
Dongfeng Motor Group
Dongfeng Motor Group Company Limited (Dongfeng Motor Group) reported a year-on-year drop of 11.07% in August sales with 227,084 vehicles delivered. For the first eight months, the group's year-to-date sales edged down 1.65% from a year ago to 1,923,186 units.
As a major profit source for the group, the PV sector saw a slight year-on-year decrease of 1.92% with the sales reaching 1,632,009 units from January to August. As to the performance of each segment, both SUV and MPV segments encountered year-on-year downturn in August sales and Jan-Aug sales. The car segment outperformed that of the SUV and MPV in terms of August sales with 101,423 units handed over, a year-on-year growth of 3.93%. Meanwhile, the year-to-date car sales, totaling 796,059 units, presented a positive growth of 3.91% over a year earlier.
Dongfeng Nissan boasted positive year-on-year growth in both August sales and Jan-Aug sales. However, the other three JVs, namely, Dongfeng Honda, Dongfeng Renault and Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile (DPCA) all saw their sales shrink over a year ago to different degrees.
GAC Group
Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC Group) delivered a total of 173,540 vehicles in August, a year-on-year increase of 10.07%. For the first eight months, the group's YTD sales reached 1,360,071 units, climbing 6.3% over the previous year.
GAC Motor, GAC's self-owned subsidiary, posted a year-on-year growth of 4.52% in monthly sales with 42,008 vehicles delivered in August. Its Jan-August sales reached 351,165 units, showing up a positive growth of 6.02% as well.
With respect to the sales performance of major joint ventures, GAC Honda encountered a year-on-year decline of 4.28% with its August sales totaling 55,314 units, while still outperforming other subsidiaries. Following GAC Honda, GAC Toyota witnessed its monthly sales surge 47.13% over the previous year to 54,540 units. Meanwhile, it handed over a total of 361,046 vehicles from January to August, achieving a year-on-year jump of 17.45%.
However, the Sino-French joint venture GAC FCA's sales slumped 33.51% to 8,515 units from 12,806 units delivered in August, 2017. The company also suffered a plunge of 52.39% in year-to-date sales with 87,391 vehicles handed over in total.
Changan Automobile
Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd (Changan Automobile) reported that its August sales slumped 34.6% year on year to 134,222 units, while edging up 4.3% from the previous month. For the first eight months, the automaker delivered 1,470,332 vehicles in total, an evident year-on-year decline of 18.1%.
The Changan Automobile's self-owned brand saw its August sales drop 17.5% over the year-ago period to 89,090 units, basically the same as the July performance. With the weather getting cooler, the automaker sees a sale growth prospect in the rest time of the year thanks to such stimulus factors as the back-to-school season and flock launching of new vehicles at the Chengdu Motor Show 2018, etc.
As to JV performances, Changan Ford saw its August sales tumble 65.9% from a year ago to 23,936, almost halved over the performance made in January. For the first eight months, the Sino-U.S. JV delivered a total of 275,572 vehicles, suffering a year-on-year plunge of 43.8%.
Changan Mazda posted a month-on-month jump of 32.3% with 12,932 vehicles delivered in August. Meanwhile, the automaker's Jan-Aug sales edged down 3.6% over a year ago to 112,948 units. The CX-8 is set to hit the market in the second half of the year. Positioned as a mid-full size SUV model, the CX-8 is expected to further drive the overall sales.
Geely Auto
Geely Auto reported a year-on-year jump of 30% in August sales with 125,522 vehicles delivered (including the Lynk & Co brand). For the first eight months, the automaker saw its cumulative sales surge 41% over the previous year to 1,012,429 units. So far, Geely Auto has completed 64.8% of the 1.58 million-unit sales target.
The sales of the Borui and the Boyue aggregated 207,215 units from January to August. As to the performance of the Emgrand family, the Jan-August sales of the Emgrand and the Emgrand GL reached 170,843 units and 102,248 units, growing 6.2% and 45.6% over the year-ago period. Besides, the sales of the Emgrand GS leaped 30.3% year on year to 109,641 units from January to August.
Three SUV model from the Vision Series, namely, the Vision SUV, the Vision X3 and the Vision S1 reached 10,045 units, 10,547 units and 4,707 units respectively last month. The sales of the all-new Vision sedan edged up 5.5% from a year earlier with 11,632 units delivered last month.
The Lynk & Co brand saw its sales reaching 13,674 units in August and 72,226 units from January to August. To be specific, the August sales of the Lynk & Co 01 and 02 were 9,303 units and 4,371 units.
Great Wall Motor
Great Wall Motor (GWM) reported a year-on-year drop of 12.99% in August sales with 64,096 vehicles delivered. For the first eight months, the automaker saw its sales edge down 2.24% to 589,945 units, completing 50.86% of the 1.16 million-unit sales target.
In August, GWM's SUV sales evidently fell 18.62% year on year to 53,099 units, while jumped 19.67% month on month. From January to August, the year-to-date SUV sales reached 500,429 units, shrinking 4.29% from a year ago. The Haval SUV brand witnessed its August sales rise 15.10% over the previous month to 42,925 units, helping the overall SUV sales attain two-digit month-on-month growth.
Besides, the WEY's monthly sales bounced back from the 7,080 units in July to 10,174 units in August, leaping 41.36% compared with the same period a year ago. The sales of the VV7 and the VV5 reached 4,002 units and 4,622 units, surging 31.99% and 31.76% from a month ago. The sales of the WEY P8 plug-in hybrid SUV were 512 units, a stable performance since the model went on sales in April.
Chery Holding
Chery Holding gained a YoY sales growth of 32.7% to 61,845 units in August, which also presented a growth of 10.7% compared with July. The good results were mainly attributed to Chery's efforts in products, channels and brands.
The group achieved good growth momentum in both domestic and global markets in August. Sales of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. reached 33,423 units with a YoY growth of 19.5%, while its sales of domestic market achieved a YoY growth of 24.5% to 22,056 units. Most strikingly, deliveries of Qoros skyrocketed 523.1% from a year ago to 5,303 units in August.
In addition, sales from NEV and overseas markets still highlighted Chery's total sales. Specifically, Chery delivered 8,194 NEVs in August, soaring 236.2% over the previous year. As to overseas market, sales of exported vehicles reached 10,557 units, jumping 31.1% from the same period a year ago.
BYD
BYD delivered 41,846 vehicles in August, leaping 42.1% on an annual basis. Strikingly, BYD's NEV sales surged to 21,838 units last month, further enhancing BYD's leading position in NEV field. Specifically, sales of pure electric vehicle reached 9,795 units in August, soaring 153% year on year and jumping 20% month on month.
The good sales results were mainly driven by the launch of all-new BYD Tang, the all-new BYD Song family models and EV models with longer ranges. As to specific sales of different models, the first model of BYD's e platform, the EV 360, maintained solid growth momentum for three months, with cumulative sales of over 30,000 units and August sales of 4,487 units. Sales of the BYD e5 450 reached 4,003 units in August with a YoY surge of 82%. With cumulative sales reaching 23,681 units, the BYD e5 450 continued to lead the pack in pure electric vehicle market.
Sales of the Qin EV 450 shot up 207% from a year ago in August, and its YTD sales reached 5,394 units. Moreover, sales of Song family topped 400,000 units. Particularly, sales of the Song Max totaled 10,459 units in August. Sales of the all-new Tang reached 10,048 units in August, among which, sales of the all-new Tang DM reached 5,043 units.
JAC Motors
JAC Motors reported a year-on-year growth of 4.61% with 36,676 vehicles delivered in August. From January to August, the automaker handed over 326,842 vehicles in total, a year-on-year drop of 4.25%.
The SUV took up the largest proportion of the overall PV sector with its sales leaping 63.93% last month to 10,324 units. However, restricted by the unfavorable performance in previous months, the Jan-Aug sales for the SUV segment still fell 16.3% from a year ago to 67,215 units.
The car sales reached 3,997 units in August and 29,317 units during the first eight months, surging 45.98% and 45.73% over the previous year respectively. The MPV segment saw its August sales plunge 35.61% year on year to 3,673 units and year-to-date sales edge down 0.47% to 41,551 units.
Moreover, JAC Motors delivered 5,800 all-electric PVs in August, achieving an impressive year-on-year jump of 122.82%. The segment attained an outstanding performance for the first eight months as well with the sales skyrocketing 114.32% from a year earlier to 31,020 units.
