Shanghai (ZXZC)- In April, passenger vehicle sales climbed by 12.2% on an annual basis, while cumulative sales grew by 5.6% over the same period last year. SUV sales reached 80,853 units with a year-on-year jump of 12.2%, according to the data compiled by ZXZC.

Thanks to the rapid growth of the Chinese SUV market, self-owned vehicle brand performed remarkably in the SUV segment, taking up 58.1% of market shares in April. There are about 80 SUV models from JV brands on sale, far less than 200 new models from self-owned vehicle brands. Specifically, 75% models from the self-owned vehicle brands are small and compact SUVs, while about 40% of JV brands are mid-size and mid-to-large SUVs.

Currently, JV brands are accelerating to deploy in the small and compact SUV market, while China's self-owned vehicle brands are also seeking to go upscale via releasing premium vehicle brands. For example, the sales of the WEY VV5 and the VV7 both surpassed 6,500 units in April.

In April, Korean-branded SUV sales skyrocketed 222.9% from a year earlier to 34,431 units. Besides, it also saw obvious YoY market share growth of 2.7%. German-branded SUV sales reached 87,072 units, jumping 25.4% over the previous year. 

As to specific segments, compact SUV was still the hottest segment with market shares up to 55.3%. Compact SUV sales rose 24% year on year to 447,199 units in April. With more compact SUV models launched in April, newly-added SUV models in April increased by 48 compared with April last year, among which 25 models are compact SUVs. However, midsize SUV suffered relatively large sales slump on an annual basis, especially the Borgward BX7, the Haval H7 and Zotye SR9.

When it comes to automakers by April SUV sales, GAC Trumpchi saw SUV sales slide of 15.9% over the previous year to 32,686 units. Particularly, sales of the Trumpchi GS4 and GS8 shrank by approximately 37% from a year ago, due to GS 4's quality crisis, intense competition from its rivals as well as the fierce competition in SUV market.  Geely, a world-famed Chinese automaker, experienced robust SUV sales growth of 87.2% compared with a year before in April.