Gasgoo.com (Shanghai) - According to statistics from Gasgoo.com (Chinese), a total of 5.45 million passenger automobiles were sold in China over the first quarter of the year. The figure represents stable year-on-year growth of 8.9%. However, foreign brand passenger automobiles have failed to meet the market level of growth; only 3.14 million foreign brand passenger automobiles have been sold in the first quarter of the year, representing year-on-year growth of 3.5%. Own brands’ market share has fallen from 60.5% in the first quarter of last year to 57.5% this year.

Despite foreign brands as a whole not reaching market standards, certain segments of the market, particularly Japanese manufacturers, performed very commendably. Japanese passenger automobile sales for the first quarter of the year totaled 791,500 units, representing strong year-on-year growth of 20.1%. Japanese brands accounted for 14.5% of all passenger automobiles sold in the country, up 1.4 percentage points from the previous year. While part of this growth can be attributed to Japanese brands’ poor performance a year ago, there are other major factors such as accurate product marketing and competitive pricing for popular models.

German and American brand passenger automobile sales have also increased year-on-year, with their quarterly sales totaling 1.12 million units and 664,900 units, up 3.0% and 4.1%, respectively. By comparison Korean and French automobile sales fell 16.2% and 17.4%, totaling 369,300 units and 151,800 units, respectively.

Volkswagen (including Audi) was the country’s most popular passenger automobile brand in China for the first quarter of the year, followed by GM, Hyundai (including Kia), Toyota, Ford, Honda, Nissan, PSA, Daimler-Chrysler and BMW.

VW has benefited greatly from the strong performances of its two Chinese joint ventures, FAW-VW and Shanghai VW. A total of 979,900 VWs were sold in the country in the first quarter, representing a slight year-on-year increase of 1.8%.

That figure was far ahead of GM, whose quarterly sales totaled 413,600 units, which was slightly less than the amount from the previous quarter. Hyundai’s sales fell even further, decreasing 16.2% year-on-year to 369,300 units. Aside from newly introduced models and a few SUVs, sales of most Hyundai models fell year-on-year. PSA’s sales also fell by a sizable margin. PSA’s quarterly sales totaled 151,800 units, down 17.4% year-on-year. Sales of existing PSA models have fallen, allowing them to be usurped by new models like the Citroën C3-XR, whose sales of 21,500 units have made it the best-selling model in China.

All three major Japanese brands saw their passenger automobile sales grow by a large margin this quarter, with the greatest growth coming from Toyota and Honda. Toyota and Honda passenger automobile sales totaled 252,300 units and 233,300 units, representing year-on-year growth of 34.1% and 36.7%, respectively. Nissan’s sales totaled 191,500 units over the same time frame, representing year-on-year growth of 12.8%