Motors Tracker

SAIC Motor’s sales were up 4 percent year on year in July, marking the third month in a row that China’s biggest automaker saw growth despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. SAIC sold 457,558 vehicles in July, according to data released by the Shanghai-based firm today. One of its joint ventures with the US’ General Motors spearheaded the gains, with SAIC-GM-Wuling shifting 130,000 autos, almost 20 percent more than the same period last year. Its JV with Germany’s Volkswagen, however, saw sales drop 7.6 percent to 134,000 vehicles. Production was cranked up by 23 percent in July from the same period last year, with the automaker churning out 474,581 units that month.

The US carmaker Tesla Motors announced to slash deposits Chinese customers have to pay for Model3, Model S and Model X to CNY1,000 today yesterday, while these deposits are neither refundable nor transferable. Customers are also required to take the car within 180 days.  Customers were asked to pay a refundable deposit of CNY20,000 - CNY30,000.  This is regarded as Tesla ’s tactics to keep sales momentum in the face of intensifying competition and reductions in the government’s electric vehicle (EV) subsidies.  Tesla also stressed that the long-range and high-performance version of Model 3 with prices over CNY300,000 ， will not be subsidized.

Volkswagen has boosted its China market share despite its declining shipments in the first half of the year. The German automaker delivered 17 percent fewer vehicles to China at 1.6 million in the first half of the year from a year ago due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Volkswagen Group China. However, the firm's market share in the Asian country has risen to 20 percent from 18.8 percent due to strong recovery since April, it added.

China’s car sales may dive as much as 20 percent this year regardless of last month’s year-on-year records for sales and production, according to a new forecast from a major auto industry association. Sales could drop 20 percent compared with last year if the novel coronavirus continues to spread worldwide or they may fall 10 percent if it comes under control overseas as well as in China, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said. The situation overseas remains uncertain and demand has not yet recovered, so export-dependent companies are still not out of trouble, the CAAM said, adding that demand is likely to soften after measures to boost consumption in various countries come to an end. China’s automakers should focus on changes in their domestic market with timely adjustments to the pace of production and sales, it added. In June, sales jumped 11.6 percent from a year earlier and 22.5 percent from the previous month to 2.3 million vehicles, the CAAM said. Some 2.325 mill...

Changan Automobiles sold 38 percent more vehicles at 194,400 units in June from a year ago, the Chongqing-based firm said in a statement yesterday, mostly spurred by its self-developed brands. In the first half, its sales climbed 1.3 percent from a year earlier amid the Covid-19 pandemic. It looks like Changan could use the win as the company has been suffering from a sales slump for three consecutive years, causing foreign partners Suzuki and Groupe PSA to withdraw from its JVs. Consequently, the Chinese firm's shares have fared poorly in the past couple of years. But things started looking up in the third quarter of last year as sales improved with the main driver of transformation being Changan-branded vehicles with better profit margins. Last month, the manufacturer's self-owned brands grew in popularity as sales rose 39 percent to 146,600 units from a year ago. Sales of joint venture Changan Ford Automobile climbed 37 percent to 22,100 units and Changan Mazda Automobile so...

China’s automobile market continued to recover last month as the Covid-19 pandemic came under control and the economy revived, while the market share of luxury cars hit a new high of 14.9 percent. About 1.7 million passenger cars sold in China in June, continuing steady growth over four straight months, but still a 6.2 percent annual slump, mainly because many auto prices were discounted last year due to the shift from the fifth-phase national emission standards to the sixth,thus inducing a higher baseline for comparison. Retail sales of passenger cars nationwide totaled 7.7 million in the first half in a yearly drop of 23 percent stemming from the fallout of Covid-19 and China’s Lunar New Year holiday that proceeded its full onslaught, according to statistics the China Passenger Car Association released yesterday. Luxury car sales grew a yearly 27 percent in a 9 percent rise over May, with a record 14.9 percent market share, spurred by demand for high-end vehicles as a consequence of ...