Economic slowdown and the post-New Year slump lead to poor China sales amongst major automakers in January, although some showed a marked improvement.
Major automakers Ford, Hyundai, Kia and VW all posted poor January sales as China’s light vehicle market declined 24% year-on-year. Many are linking the lukewarm sales to the country’s general economic slowdown, as well as the weeklong hiatus over Chinese New Year.
Ford was by far the worst performing, with a 41.9% year-on-year drop in sales to 30,976 vehicles in January. The American automaker is still trying to wrestle free of its three-way tie-up with Changan Automobile and Mazda Motor Corp, where sales also fell 42.6% to 18,324 vehicles.
Beijing car showroom. Image: Autoblog |
Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia also had a hard first month of 2012, selling only 97,994 vehicles, which according to independent analyst LMC Automotive represents a 16.5% drop compared to a year earlier.
Beijing Hyundai has a combined production capacity of 900,000 vehicles a year, while Kia Motors joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Corp has a 430,000 vehicle capacity. Both are seeking to build new assembly plants across China in the near future.
Surprisingly, the popular VW brand dipped 9% year-on-year to 159,900 units in January. Nonetheless, sales of VW-owned Audi AG leapt 23% to 27,206 units as desire for luxury cars increases. The company sold 1,442 Audi A8 “stretch” sedans in January, setting a good precedent for the stretched A6 sedan, which will be available in a few weeks’ time.
German luxury cars are proving fairly resilient to adverse market conditions, as BMW and Mini sales showed a significant increase of 31% to 26,505 units. According to BMW, China has now eclipsed the US as its largest market, where its January sales totalled 19,739.
Unlike its competitors, however, Mercedes Benz showed a 7% reduction to 14,463 units, largely due to a “downturn in inventory shortages” and expansions at the Beijing assembly plant.