Shanghai (ZXZC)- During the month of August, Toyota faced a rare year-on-year sales downturn in China with its sales driver Corolla hit by a severe decrease. Honda and Nissan still maintained a stable growth. Vexed by thin product lineup and overall sluggish market climate, Mazda suffered a double-digit drop in China August sales.

Toyota

(Photo source: Toyota China)

Toyota Motor Corp's retail sales in China dropped 3.8% in August from a year earlier to 129,200 vehicles. The last time recording year-on-year downturn was in February 2018.  

The Japan’s No.1 automaker has sold roughly 1,038,200 vehicles through August, 2019, achieving a year-on-year increase of 10.4%, according to the previous data collected by ZXZC.

Toyota aims to raise vehicle sales in China by 8% to 1.6 million this year, the Japanese automaker said in January. In light of the Jan.-Aug. performance, the sales mission continued to proceed at a balanced pace.

The all-new Corolla hit the market on August 8, but its August deliveries plunged 46.7% over the prior-year to around 16,900 units. Sales volume of Toyota's premium car brand Lexus also represented a decrease of 4.3%.

Honda

Honda posted a year-on-year growth of 5.9% in August deliveries in China, according to the figures offered by the Japanese automaker's Chinese branch.

In the world's largest auto market, 124,155 customers took delivery of Honda's vehicles last month. Both GAC Honda and Dong Honda gained growth in August sales—the former handed over 59,449 vehicles to consumers, a slight growth of 1.4% from the prior-year, while the latter saw its monthly sales rise 10.5% to 64,706 units.

For the first eight months, sales volume of two joint ventures totaled 985,514 units, jumping 18.4% compared with the corresponding period in 2018. Year-to-date sales of GAC Honda climbed 9.9% year over year to 495,614 units, while Dongfeng Honda boasted a jump of 28.4% with 489,900 vehicles delivered through August.

Two models—the CIVIC and the CR-V, got their respective sales volume in August exceeding 20,000 units. There was only one model, the CIVIC, whose monthly sales topping 20,000 units in July.

Nissan

Nissan said it kept a stable growth in August sales and Jan.-Aug. sales despite the 13th-month-in-a-row slowdown in China’s auto market.

In August, its China vehicle sales (including imported models’ sales) climbed 2% year on year to 129,659 units. Of that, the passenger vehicle business—Dongfeng Nissan and Dongfeng Venucia—saw its sales volume grow 2.5% to 108,536 units, while the light commercial vehicle business – Dongfeng Automobile Co., Ltd. and Zhengzhou Nissan—sold 17,242 vehicles last month, a slight decline of 0.4%.

Year-to-date sales of Nissan's China market edged up 0.2% from the previous year to 956,270 units. The PV and CV sales reached 791,954 units (-0.7%) and 140,420 units (+7.7%) respectively.

Dongfeng Nissan (including Nissan-branded imported models) achieved the best-ever performance in both August sales (100,018 units, +4.3%) and Jan.-Aug. sales (715,178 units, +1.2%).

Besides, Dongfeng Venucia sold 76,776 vehicles through August, of which 8,518 units were delivered in August.

Mazda

（Photo source: Changan Mazda)

Mazda Motor (China) Co., Ltd. reported total August retail sales of 17,729 vehicles, a decrease of 20.74% compared to August 2018. Year-to-date sales through August saw a double-digit decline of 25.25%, with 141,125 vehicles sold in China.

Both two joint ventures posted two-digit drop in August deliveries. FAW Mazda and Changan Mazda sold 7,716 units and 10,013 units respectively, sliding 14.76% and 24.81% from the previous year, according to the latest sales report and the figures for August, 2018.

For the first eight months, FAW Mazda saw its sales plunge 29.21% from a year ago to 53,934 units. Meanwhile, Changan Mazda was hit by a decrease of 22.58% with its sales reaching 87,191 units.

With 7,179 vehicles sold, the Mazda 3 Axela was crowned the best-seller in August. Its year-to-date sales totaled 60,676 units, far more than that of the other models.