Shanghai (ZXZC)- In January, automakers in China sold a total of 1,606,668 locally-produced PVs (hereby referring to cars, MPVs, SUVs and minibuses), a year-on-year decrease of 21.6% and a month-on-month drop of 27.3%, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

There were fewer workdays in January than that of the year-ago period due to the earlier Spring Festival holiday. Thus, the outputs of China-built PVs tumbled 29.1% year on year to 1,418,854 units, 187,814 units fewer than the wholesale volume.

The wholesales of new energy PVs reached roughly 45,000 units in Jan., plunging 51.3% from the previous year and 67% from the previous month. Of those, the sales of PHEVs and BEVs were around 10,000 units (-38%) and 35,000 units (-52%).

Since the outbreak of coronavirus overlapped the Lunar New Year holiday, the virus-caused effects were relatively limited. However, the delayed production restart and the epidemic containment measures will worsen the auto market in Feb. As one of the most important automobile bases in China, Wuhan, the epidemic center of the outbreak, accounted for 8.9% of the country’s total outputs in 2019. The hardship it is now confronting will somewhat impinge on the industry's overall performance.

Last month, China's Vehicle Inventory Alert Index (VIA), which measures the inventory level of automobile dealers, stood at 62.7%, growing 6.3 and 6.5 percentage points over a month ago and a year ago respectively, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association (CADA).

As of Jan. 2020, the country's VIA has been exceeding the official warning threshold for 25 consecutive months. 

Among the top 10 PV models by Jan. wholesale volume, three were SUVs and the rest part was entirely taken by car models. The Hongguang MPV, a regular for the previous top 10 PV model list, was not included last month. Actually, it even failed to enter the top 30.

Car models

The CPCA said car wholesale volume in Jan. fell 25.9% over a year earlier to 742,240 units.

The Sylphy was honored the best-selling car model with 37,255 units sold, 1,330 units more than that of the runner-up Lavida. Both fierce rivals have had all-electric versions.

The Corolla was still the second runner-up with no discount offered. In January, the well-received car model accounted for roughly 46% of FAW-Toyota's total sales. The Levin was ranked sixth this time. After the all-new Levin hit the market in last May, its sales volume has been surpassing 20,000 units for seven consecutive months as of Jan. 2020.

China's indigenous brands took two places, namely, the Emgrand and the Roewe i5. The Chevrolet Mona moved up to the tenth place thanks to discounts and its outstanding exterior.

SUV models

At the same month, automakers sold 767,123 SUVs in total, a year-on-year decrease of 14.1%.

The Haval maintained its championship, while suffered a year-over-year slump of up to 41.3%, which should be partly blamed for the slide in Great Wall Motor's total sales. 

Geely's Boyue climbed to the runner-up place, followed by the Honda CR-V. Besides, the Trumpchi GS4 surged to the sixth place. The roll-out of the all-new Trumpchi GS4 vigorously boosted the model's total sales—the 133% year-on-year hike is the most persuasive result.