Top ten sellers in September, BYD F3 gone from the list
It seems that the BYD F3 has disappeared from the list of top ten vehicles sold in September, this time last year it was one of the best selling vehicles in China but it seems to have lost favor rather quickly with consumers.
- Buick Excelle – 22,600 vehicles
- Hyundai Elantra – 22,100
- VW Lavida – 20,080
- VW Santana – 20,070
- VW Jetta – 20,000
- Chery Fulwin – 19,800
- Chevrolet Cruze – 17,300
- Xiali -17,200
- VW New Bora – 16,900
- Nissan Teana – 16,500
The obvious lack of the BYD F3 may point to the fact that BYD are punting the newer L3 and G3 series, which as spread their sales further, although sales statistics are currently available for both models in September. An interesting addition to the top selling sedans line up is the Nissan Teana, a mid sized sedan that comes with the choice of a 2.0L 4 cylinder engine or a larger 2.5L V6 and 3.5L V6 offerings, it appears that Nissan have promoted the 2.0L 4 cylinder Teana quite extensively in August and September which as lead to it becoming one of the best selling sedans in Sept alone, it is unusual for a larger car to make it into the top selling lists.
The top selling companies are listed as follows
- Shanghai GM – 92,700 vehicle sold
- Shanghai VW – 84,700
- FAW-VW – 79,300
- Beijing Hyundai – 58,600
- Dongfeng Nissan – 56,200
- Chery – 54,400
- PSA (Dongfeng-Peugeot-Citroen) – 35,700
- Chang’an Ford – 35,600
- BYD – 32,800
- Geely – 32,600
Compared to August’s statistics, it appears that FAW-VW has gone down slightly, whilst other such as Dongfeng PSA and Dongfeng-Nissan have shown clear sales growth in September. The top car companies stood for sales of 562,260 vehicles sold in China in September, and took 66% of the market.
SUV sales still remain strong in September, the Hover and the Zotye 5008 are the only Chinese cars that really represent in the segment in meaningful numbers. The SUV segment will get added competition from the new Chery Tiggo3 and also the Geely SUV next month.
- Dongfeng Honda CRV – 13,400
- Greatwall Haval – 12,400
- VW Tiguan – 9,600
- Hyundai IX35 – 9000
- Zotye 5008 – 8,300
The top 5 selling SUV’s took 42% of the market in September.
MPV sales remain strong in September, the top five selling MPV’s are
- JAC Rui Feng – 6355 vehicles
- Buick GL8 – 5015
- FAW Lin Ya – 4339
- Honda Odyssey – 4129
- Dongfeng Ling Zhi – 2880
The top five selling MPV’s took 56% of the market in September. The Buick GL8′s strong sales are probably due to impressive deals on the model, as it is about to be replaced by a newer model based on the Buick Rivera concept MPV dealers are eager to rid their forecourts of the model.
This months lack of a BYD F3 in the top ten is likely to come as a blow to BYD, whose sales are also down by a reported 25% in September, it could be that their spreading out of their model lines over different dealership networks is harming their sales as consumers cannot find the car that they are looking for, as well as rebranding F3 as the slightly improved G3 and L3 models, an overhaul of the F3 would have carried on its winning streak rather than building the G3 and L3 series of cars.
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I can remember back in April I told you that F3 sales figure was cooked up badly due to rapid dealer network expansion. Many accused me as a China-basher. Now the game is over, even the recent visit by Buffett & Gates will not help. My sympathy to BYD share holders.
CCT
In #6 Chery Fulwin 19,800
Are you sure it is Fulwin?
It should be Cowin1+Cowin2+Cowin3 added together.
Chery can only have Fulwin2 in sedan or hatchback.
In the MPV segment the Dongfeng Liuzhou Fengxing Lingzhi MPV, aka Futurer, continues to do well after all these years. Perhaps Mitsubishi would not have predicted it when it granted Dongfeng the license to build em almost ten years ago.
Why Baolong discontinued them may have led to the company’s demise.
@ dragin
The Futurer (Fengxing)/ Joyear (Jingyi) is not a Mitsubishi MPV copy, it is based on Renault Scenic Mk2 with a Mitsubishi MPV look. That is the reason why it sold so well in these years. Someone is really thinking they are buying a Mitsubishi.
The US version of the Buick Excelle goes on sale next year. Styling, inside and out, will be very close to the Chinese version. Sales are expected to be much lower than Chinese sales.
Buick is hoping to sell around 4,000+ a month.
I’m not familiar with Xiali. Is this a FAW sub-brand, or an independent brand?
Xiali
@ santos palisander
Xiali is under FAW Tianjin Auto and began with a Daihatsu Charade. After Toyota’s takeover of Daihatsu, the subsequent Xiali are Toyota’s subcompact cars. Xiali is a brand name with different models but basically all small cars.
In the top 10 list, both Chery Cowin & FAW Xiali are misleading. They are not one car model, instead there are several models to make up that sales number. Pretty smart move to get into the list.
Wow………are the “glory days” for BYD over already? Sure looks like it…..to see the F3 sales drop completely out of the top 10 is significant (and not in a good way). A bit surprised to see the Fulwin2 on the list, but then again not really – it’s a solid, well designed car and the hatch version is damn good looking in person (we have them here in Nanning already, and they are getting popular quickly). Seeing Xiali on the list is no surprise either – now that the V2 is on sale nationally and getting wide promotion right now…..oh, and it’s a nice little car as well (and available WITH a CVT). Poor VW……what a conundrum they have right now. They want to shut down assembly of the old Jetta/Santana by 2012, but people just keep on buying them and they continue to be on the top ten lists every month!!
The Lavida looks like it’s going to be a mainstay as well (it IS the heir apparent for the Santana after all) and I wouldn’t be surprised to see taxi fleets begin to use them in the near future. One disturbing fact – I didn’t see ANY sub-compact/city cars on the top 10 list (no QQ, no Panda, no F0)….the government wants people to gravitate towards smaller, more fuel efficient cars but people don’t seem to be buying them in large numbers. Let’s see what happens in a few months – now that the Verna (Hyundai) has just been released as well as the March (Nissan), perhaps they might climb into the top 10 with a few months of exposure and promotion. Where is Ford?? No Fiesta on the list, and for that matter no Honda or Toyota either…….a 1 month anomaly or a sign of shifting sales?
Has anyone seen a March yet? Ive seen one, possibly the same one twice though.
Hi hk:
“The Futurer (Fengxing)/ Joyear (Jingyi) is not a Mitsubishi MPV copy,….”
I’m afraid you are confusing the Jingyi with the Lingzhi. The Lingzhi is a licensed copy of Mitsubishi’s Delica Space Gear introduced in around 1994.
Have a look at: http://www.dzkc.com.cn
Both models are sold under the Fengxing brand.
Oh, and yes the Jingyi is selling well these days too.
Yes dragin, you are right. I have mixed up with them.
Sometimes the conversion from Chinese name to English name is very confusing. Just like Chery’s Fulwin & Cowin !!!
Hi hk, and Santos:
“Xiali is under FAW Tianjin Auto and began with a Daihatsu Charade. After Toyotas takeover of Daihatsu, the subsequent Xiali are Toyotas subcompact cars. Xiali is a brand name with different models but basically all small cars.”
and
“In the top 10 list, both Chery Cowin & FAW Xiali are misleading. They are not one car model, instead there are several models to make up that sales number. Pretty smart move to get into the list.”
I’m not sure about the Chery Fulwin model listed but the “Xiali” I believe only refers to the N3 (national,new and nice) sedan and hatchback model. I don’t believe it refers to those built on the Toyota NBC (new body concept) models of FAW Xiali. Yes, it is indeed confusing…..
@ joninchina
You are right, the small cars (< 1.3L) are not popular in the top 10. That means the China market growth is coming from 1.4L-1.8L compact cars. Also an interesting finding of the following pairs :
1)Buick Excelle / Chevrolet Cruze
2)VW Santana / VW Lavida
3)VW Jetta / VW New Bora
They are older generation with new one together. That is China's uniqueness.
Hyundai Elantra is in the same class as Excelle/Cruze.
Nissan Teana just overtakes Camry/Accord.
Chery Cowin & FAW Xiali are… well, I have explained above.
I spend half the day in a mianbaoche (in the back seat observing, holding on for dear life and giving the driver directions) in GZ and it’s pretty surprising NOT to see a stronger presence from both Nissan and Ford in the standings. GZ is pretty even for most brands and with the amount of vehicles on the road its a pretty level playing field. Saying that though there are a few observations.
The Excelle got more popular over the first half of the year but others seem to have caught it now.
In Foshan where I regularly go the Ford dealer has gone through stock at a pretty healthy rate (note, I am a Ford fan so notice it more than others..plus the dealership is by the lights that my driver takes a shortcut). The large Fiesta stocks there vanished over summer.
BYD has never had a really strong presence here but I feel their lack in sales are due to not really giving the car a decent facelift of the F3 but most likely have come from more competition for others over the past year as well as other factors.
Seen two Verna’s in the past week but only noticed because they had no plates otherwise from the back would have thought it was a new Regal (which looks small in my eyes). Verna in blue looked better than in white but not by a lot.
Long live the Jetta, Santana and Xiali
CCT loves (add comment here) the Xiali.
@ dragin
The sales figure for Xiali includes N3,N5,V1.
You are familiar with CCF, they have the detail.
Over there, Chery is even not in the top 10.
@joninchina
Good news for you. In A0 class, the top 10 list is :
1 FAW Xiali 17243
2 Chevrolet Sail 11777
3 Hyundai Verna 9776
4 Chery Cowin 2 7692
.
.
8 Hyundai Accent 5779
9 Nissan March 5607
10 Suzuki NorthStar 4950