Shanghai (ZXZC)- For the cloudy month of February, Great Wall Motor (GWM), China's biggest SUV and pickup manufacturer, saw its new vehicle sales nosedive 85.48% from a year ago to 10,023 units, according to the latest post on the company's WeChat account.

The year-to-date sales also took a hit amongst the shock waves brought by coronavirus and the downturn led by the Lunar New Year holiday.

Although the domestic market plunged to a freezing point due to the unexpected outbreak, GWM successfully maintained the rising impetus in overseas business. In February, the export volume edged up 2.04% year on year to 3,003 units, making the Jan.-Feb. volume total 7,445 units (+11.19%).

It seems that the foreign markets are being taken as an important growth point by China automakers. Aside from GWM, both SAIC Motor and Chery Holding also announced sales growth attained outside China.

(Photo source: Great Wall Motor's WeChat account)

Haval brand encountered an 85.51% slump last month. The Haval H6 was still the best-seller, while the epidemic brought its sales down by 80.29%. Besides, the respective sales of the Haval H4, M6, F5 and F7 all displayed decrease of over 90%.

The Haval H9 was the unique one regarding Jan.-Feb. sales by featuring a 9.45% growth, which should be largely attributable to its small base number.

As for the pickup unit, the sales of the Wingle and the Great Wall C30 sharply fell 89.13% and 80.38% respectively. The “China Ⅵ” version of the Wingle 5 pickup hit the market on Feb. 29, a proactive response to the governmental policy that requests all light-duty vehicles sold and registered after June 30, 2020 to meet the stricter emission standard.

The Baoding-based automaker said a vigorous sales rebound has been emerging since March. The daily pickup sales have reached 500 units averagely, and hit 620 units sometimes. For the first week of March, the pickup deliveries in such provinces as Zhejiang, Yunnan and Chongqing even soared more than 50% from the year-ago period.