According to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), China’s PV wholesale volume in May reached 1,566,682 units, dropping 17.6% from the previous year. Decrease in car sales was enlarged to 17.9% from 14.4% in April, while year-on-year decline in both SUV sales and MPV sales shrank 3.9 and 8.9 percentage points respectively from a month ago (PVs hereby refer to China’s locally-produced cars, MPVs, SUVs and minibuses).
For the first five months, the national PV wholesale volume slid 15.1% over a year earlier to 8,413,542 units.
The Vehicle Inventory Alert Index (VIA) in May was 54%, a year-on-year increase of 0.3 percentage points and a month-on-month drop of 7 percentage points. This was the 17th month in a row exceeding an official warning threshold.
Among the top 10 PV models by May wholesale volume, there are five models suffering negative year-on-year growth, even including the champion (the Lavida) and the runner-up (the Corolla). Besides, only two SUV models appeared on the top 10 PV model list.
China saw its car wholesale volume in May fall 17.9% over the previous year. From January to May, cumulative car sales in this country declined 13.6% to 4,095,726 units.
Compared with the performance for April, the Lavida and the Corolla maintained the championship and the runner-up place on the top 10 car model list by May wholesale volume. The Corolla is expected to have a further sales boost after its all-new version hit the market in August.
It is noteworthy that the May wholesale volume of the Excelle, the Accord and the Roewe i5 all surged over 110% compared with the same period a year ago.
Besides, the BMW 5 Series, ranking 10th, was the only premium model among the top 10 car models.
The country's SUV wholesale volume amounted to 655,429 units in May (-14.7%) and totaled 3,603,427 units for the first five months (-15.2%).
The Haval H6 was still the best-selling SUV model, while facing a year-on-year sales decrease of 17%. As the China Stage 6 Emission Standard is approaching, Haval has been frequently announcing price discount since last September to clear the inventories of China 5 vehicles, spurring on its sales volume to some degree.
In May, the Tiguan saw its monthly sales exceed 20,000 units for the first time in 2019, while posted a year-on-year sales drop of 18.1%. Part of consumers might be distracted by other new models like the Tharu.
This was the second time in 2019 for the Toyota RAV4 to enter the top 10 SUV model list by monthly wholesale volume. The TNGA-based all-new RAV2 will go on sale in October to further increase the sales.
