Shanghai (ZXZC)- SAIC Motor saw its sales in January tumbled 34.55% over a year ago, versus the estimated 18% drop in the industry’s total reported by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

Despite the overall downturn, the group still boasted growth in sales of indigenous brands. The combined sales of Roewe and MG aggregated 60,025 units, making SAIC Motor PV gain a slight year-on-year growth of 0.04%.

Amid the fighting against the novel coronavirus, automakers spare no effort to maintain their sales performance through various innovative methods. On the Valentine's Day, Yu Jingmin, vice president of SAIC PV Motor, performed as a host on a live-streaming platform to sell cars personally, attracting numerous netizens to watch.

SAIC Maxus started its year of 2020 with a remarkable growth of 11.42%. The balanced development strategy for PVs and CVs and the consumer-centric customized marketing business model should owe much to its blooming sales.

(Photo source: SAIC Volkswagen)

However, the sweeping downturn that hit joint ventures still brought the overall sales down. SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling respectively suffered year-over-year plunge of 40.53%, 30.49% and 51.10%. It is noteworthy that SAIC-GM-Wuling recently earned much “likes” among users by producing the urgently needed face masks to combat the virus.

As for the CV sector, the sales of SAIC-IVECO Hongyang Commercial Vehicle and Naveco Ltd. shrank 38.51% and 6.24% from the previous year respectively.

Apart from the rising sales of self-owned brands, the performance of overseas markets was another bright spot. Last month, MG Motor India sold 3,381 new vehicles and SAIC GM Wuling Indonesia Co.,Ltd. obtained a 41.5% hike. The auto giant expects its overseas auto sales to reach 1 million units by 2025.