In May 2023, the three Japanese automakers, namely Toyota Motor, Nissan Motor, and Honda Motor all scored positive year-on-year growth in their monthly sales in the world’s largest auto market, China.

In the fifth month of 2023, the three automakers all successfully achieved a monthly China sales volume higher than that of a year ago. Among the trio, Toyota Motor was the only one boasting a consecutive growth in sales for two straight months. Meanwhile, the automaker’s year-to-date sales growth also turned positive compared to a year ago. 

Notably, in May 2022, China’s auto market was still in a relatively low level under external influences such as the pandemic and the cramped supply of raw materials. The turnaround in the three automakers’ performance was partly attributed to the low base effect.

As to May performance of individual companies, during the past month, Toyota sold 162,400 vehicles in China, representing a 9.3% rise from a year ago, according to data provided by Kyodo. 

Among the automaker’s two Sino joint ventures, FAW-Toyota saw a 12.3% hike in May sales from the previous year, while GAC Toyota posted a 10.8% jump. According to Kyodo, China sales of Toyota’s high-end brand, Lexus, fell 5.3% from a year ago in May. 

UX; photo credit: Lexus

In the Jan.-May period, Toyota’s cumulative sales volume in China amounted to 704,800 vehicles, which also turned positive compared to the year-ago result with a 0.1% increase. Toyota was the only company among the trio to score a positive year-on-year growth in year-to-date China sales by the end of May. 

In the past month, Honda Motor’s China monthly sales stood at 101,321 vehicles, climbing 13.73% from the previous year while also rising 6.79% from the previous month. May signified the fifth consecutive month for Honda to score a positive month-on-month growth this year.

Notably, the automaker didn’t reveal the sales breakdown of each joint venture this time. However, sales of some models were disclosed. Specifically, there were a total of four vehicle models whose May China sales all surpassed 10,000 units, namely, the CR-V, the ACCORD, the BREEZE, and the CIVIC, with sales of the CR-V exceeding 17,000 units.

In the first five months of this year, Honda’s cumulative sales in China amounted to 416,558 vehicles, which was still down by 22.6% compared to the same span of last year.

In the meantime, Nissan Motor’s May sales in China came in at 66,096 vehicles, showing a year-on-year growth of 10.7% and a month-on-month increase of 7.8%. The sales performance continues to recover, said the company. 

Note that sales data of Dongfeng Automobile Company (DFAC) were still included in Nissan Motor’s China sales report until October 2022, and the year-on-year comparison in May 2023 has DFAC's numbers subtracted from the year-ago results. 

In the past month, Dongfeng Motor Co. & Ltd., the joint venture between Dongfeng Motor Group and Nissan Motor sold a total of 62,832 vehicles (including Nissan, Venucia, and INFINITI brands), which indicated a 12.4% rise year-over-year and a 9.2% hike month-on-month. Among them, Nissan brand sales reached 56,913 units in May, up 14.1% from a year ago and 8.4% from a month earlier. 

Meanwhile, the company's light commercial vehicle joint venture, Zhengzhou Nissan, recorded a monthly sales volume of 3,264 vehicles in May.