Analysis of Sales of Key Classes in Class B Market

At the 2011 Shanghai Auto Show, Shanghai Volkswagen's new Passat, Shenlong Motor’s Peugeot 508, and Dongfeng Yueda Kia’s K5, these B-class new cars have received great attention from industry players and consumers. The listing of these Class B sedans will make the competition in the B-class auto market even more intense this year. Before the launch of these new vehicles, the most attention in the Class B market was the Guangzhou Automobile Honda Accord, Guangzhou Automobile Toyota Camry, Dongfeng Nissan Xintianyi, Shanghai Volkswagen Passat, FAW-Volkswagen MAGOTAN, Shanghai GM New LaCrosse and New Regal, and FAW Car Mazda6. The sales of these eight models have significant advantages over other B-class vehicles. Let's take a look at the sales performance of the eight B-class rugs in the first quarter of this year and the first quarter of this year.

2010: New Tianshao Super Passat's new "Double" performance disparity

According to the data collected by Gasgoo.com, the sales of these eight B-class vehicles totaled 960,900 in 2010, a year-on-year increase of 16.6%. Among them, the top five models sold were Accord, Camry, Xintianyi, Passat and Xinjun Yue.

Specifically, although Accord had new models to help out in 2010, sales still fell 2.1% compared to 2009. Camry's sales growth also showed signs of fatigue, which was only 3.3% year-on-year in 2010. In spite of this, the Accord and Camry still respectively defended the top-to-bottom sales of the Class B vehicle market.

Among the top three B-class cars in Japan, only the sales volume of New Tianyi achieved a relatively high growth in 2010 – an increase of 29.8% from the same period of the previous year to 140,800, which exceeded Passat. In 2009, sales of Passat, which was ahead of Xintianyi, increased by 15.7% year-on-year to 131,000 units in 2010.

Masateng from the Volkswagen Passat B6 platform has a large gap with Shanghai Volkswagen Passat sales. In 2010, sales of MAGOTAN increased by only 17.7% year-on-year to 78,900 units, which is lower than the 51,100 units of the Shanghai Volkswagen Passat. In 2009, its sales volume was 46,200 units lower than that of the Shanghai Volkswagen Passat.

Shanghai GM’s new “Shuangjun” sales performance in 2010 was very different. New LaCrosse sales increased 140.3% year-on-year to 104,400 units, exceeding Mazda 6, New Regal, Magotan, Jing Cheng, and Reiz. Sales volume of New Regal fell 0.7% to 79,400 vehicles.

Mazda 6 sales volume increased by 16.0% year-on-year to 94,400 units, while sales of the new generation Mazda 6 Ruiyi increased by 144.5% year-on-year to 43,100 units.

In the first quarter of 2011: Xintianye Chaomi Maimaiteng experienced the largest decline

In the first quarter of this year, the overall sales growth of these eight B-Class vehicles slowed down significantly, with an average growth rate of only 2.3%. Among them, Accord sales continued to decline year-on-year, while Camry changed significantly from last year's low growth to 12.8%, while Xintianhao and Passat's sales also grew only 7.4% and 4.9% respectively. The growth momentum of the new LaCrosse and the Mazda 6 is relatively high, with a year-on-year increase of 23.5% and 38.8% respectively. New Regal also reversed the declining momentum of the previous year, which in turn grew by 3.4%. The sales of Magotan declined by 27.0% year-on-year, which is the largest decline among the 8 vehicles.

From the sales rankings, there is only one change compared to 2010, that is, Xintianhao has surpassed Camry in sales and ranked second. The ranking between other models is still very stable, showing that the market is relatively stable. The new Shanghai-Volkswagen New Passat, Peugeot 508, Dongfeng Yueda Kia K5 and other new B-class vehicles will bring new changes to the market.