Summary: Sales of foreign brand passenger automobiles in 2015

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai) - According to statistics compiled by Gasgoo.com (Chinese), a total of 20.19 million passenger automobiles were sold in China in 2015, representing year-on-year growth of 9.6%. Sales growth rates for foreign-affiliated joint venture enterprises have failed to meet the overall market average, with their combined passenger automobile sales only increasing a slight 2.4% from 12.20 million units sold in 2014 to 12.51 million units sold in 2015. The proportion of passenger automobile sales coming from joint venture model sales in 2015 totaled 61.9%, down 4.4 percentage points.

German models were the most successful subsection of passenger automobiles sold in the country, with their sales last year totaling 3.99 million units, representing slight year-on-year growth of 1.5%. German models accounted for 32.0% of all passenger automobiles sold over the course of the year, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous year. Japanese passenger automobile sales grew a full 8.1%, totaling 3.41 million units. Their share of the overall JV passenger automobile market increased 1.4 percentage points to 27.2%. American passenger automobile sales totaled 2.59 million units, up 2.6% year-on-year. Meanwhile, Korean and French passenger automobile sales fell 4.9% and 0.5% year-on-year, totaling 1.67 million units and 726,269 units, respectively.

VW was the most successful foreign brand in 2015 in terms of passenger automobile sales, followed by Hyundai, Buick, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Ford, Chevrolet, Kia and Audi.

A total of 2.67 million VW passenger automobile models were sold in 2015, far above any other foreign brand in the country. The figure is down 1.6% from the previous year. VW is still reeling from the emissions scandal earlier the year and poor macroeconomic conditions. The only VW models which were able to achieve positive year-on-year sales growth were the Lavida, Tiguan, Golf, Polo and Lamando. Other models saw their sales decrease, with sales growth rates of the Santana and Magotan in the negative double digits. Sister brand Audi’s passenger automobile sales remained nearly level, totaling 509,998 units.

Hyundai was the number two brand in terms of passenger automobile sales. Its sales totaled 1.06 million units, down 5.1% year-on-year. Fellow Korean brand Kia also saw their passenger automobile sales decrease in 2015, falling 4.6% to 616,096 units.

Buick and Ford passenger automobile sales totaled 1.03 million automobiles and 865,702 automobiles, representing year-on-year growth rates of 12.9% and 8.0%, respectively. Chevrolet was the other American brand that made the top ten passenger automobile sales chart with total sales of 636,518 units, down 17.0% year-on-year. This decline in growth was due to lagging sales of key models like the Cruze and New Sail, down 7.5% and 14.5% year-on-year.

Japanese brand Toyota benefited greatly from sales of the redesigned Corolla and Levin. The brand’s passenger automobile 2015 sales grew 5.6% year-on-year, totaling 1.01 million units. Honda’s sales grew 24.8% from 2014, despite the fact that sales of its top model, the CR-V, fell 6.9% year-on-year. Nissan’s 2015 passenger automobiles sales totaled 891,361 units, up a slight 3.7%, benefiting mainly from the popularity of the Bluebird Sylphy, X-Trail and Teana.