Shanghai (ZXZC)- FAW Group said its cumulative sales for the first half of 2020 climbed 2.3% from a year earlier to 1,630,923 units, defying against the overall downward trend mainly led by the impact of COVID-19 spread.

During the first six months, the state-owned automaker output 1,622,279 complete vehicles, a slight year-on-year increase of 1.5%.

Hongqi continued to see a sales hike in June. Last month, the premium brand sold 15,422 new vehicles, which represented a 92.5% surge over a year ago. Thanks to the six straight months of increase, Hongqi's first-half sales were more than doubled over the prior-year period to 70,045 units.

(Hongqi HS5, photo source: Hongqi)

According to FAW Group, the sales volume of the Hongqi HS5 SUV has exceeded 9,000 units for two consecutive months, which greatly contributed to the brand's overall sales growth.

Another two indigenous brands—Jiefang and Besturn—sold 278,235 (+35.6%) and 48,650 vehicles respectively from Jan. to Jun. During the past June, Jiefang saw its sales soar 94.5% to 48,672 units, and Besturn had a sales volume of 12,357 units.

As for joint ventures, both FAW-Volkswagen and FAW-Toyota boasted double-digit increase in June.

(Avalon)

According to the data offered by FAW-Toyota, the sales of Avalon reached 13,245 units in June, hitting a new high level in terms of monthly sales. A total of 36,103 vehicles from the Corolla family were sold last month, of which the volume of its hybrid version vigorously leapt 154% from the previous year. Moreover, the June sales of the all-new RAV4, the IZOA series, the Vios and the Prado amounted to 15,566 units, 5,893 units, 7,140 units and 3,282 units respectively.

FAW-Mazda sold 34,051 new cars so far this year. Notably, its sales in June remarkably grew 17.5% to 100,15 units.