Top ten sellers in September, BYD F3 gone from the list

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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.

1. Buick Excelle – 22,600 vehicles
2. Hyundai Elantra – 22,100
3. VW Lavida – 20,080
4. VW Santana – 20,070
5. VW Jetta – 20,000
6. Chery Fulwin – 19,800
7. Chevrolet Cruze – 17,300
8. Xiali -17,200
9. VW New Bora – 16,900
10. 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

1. Shanghai GM – 92,700 vehicle sold
2. Shanghai VW – 84,700
3. FAW-VW – 79,300
4. Beijing Hyundai – 58,600
5. Dongfeng Nissan – 56,200
6. Chery – 54,400
7. PSA (Dongfeng-Peugeot-Citroen) – 35,700
8. Chang’an Ford – 35,600
9. BYD – 32,800
10. 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.

1. Dongfeng Honda CRV – 13,400
2. Greatwall Haval – 12,400
3. VW Tiguan – 9,600
4. Hyundai IX35 – 9000
5. 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

1. JAC Rui Feng – 6355 vehicles
2. Buick GL8 – 5015
3. FAW Lin Ya – 4339
4. Honda Odyssey – 4129
5. 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.