2020 Chinese Automotive Sales by Brand – The Best-Selling Automotive Brands By Sales Volume
As opposed to other markets like Europe and the US, the Chinese car market recovered quickly from COVID-related lockdowns. After an 81.7% drop in February and an 48.8% decline in March, April was down just 5.2% and from then on the market was back into the black, with the year-on-year gains growing every month until the 10.9% gain in November before dropping slightly to +6.2% in Decemer, which was the biggest month of the year in absolute terms. Because of the first quarter declines, Chinese car sales drop 6.7% in 2020 to 19.7 million. That makes it the third consecutive year of declines and the first time since 2014 that fewer than 20 million cars were sold in China.
Crossovers and SUVs are up 5.1% to reach a new record share of 47% of the Chinese passenger car market, less than half a percentage point below sedans, which were down 6.7% in 2020 to 47.4% share. At this rate, crossovers and SUVs may outsell sedans in 2021 for the first time ever. MPVs are down 22.7% to the lowest share since 2012 at of 5.6%.
Import brands outperformed domestic brands for the third consecutive year, with a loss of 6.1% for foreign brands compared to a loss of 8.4% for Chinese brands. As a result, the share of domestic Chinese brands is down to its lowest since 2014, at 38.2%. Japanese brands are the big winners in 2020 with a 1.1% increase in sales to 23.5% share, the highest since 2010. US brands are down just 1.3% to 9.8% share, while European brands trailed the market with sales down 9.8% to a share of 25%. South-Korean brands struggled in 2020 at -28.5% for a 3.5% share, the second lowest since at least 2003, the earliest we have data for. In absolute terms, South-Korean brands haven’t sold this few cars in China since 2008. They’re down by 1.1 million sales since their peak of 1.79 million in 2016.
Brands
Market leader Volkswagen has lost market share every month of 2020 and finishes the year as the worst performing brand in the top-12 with sales down 15.8%. Its nearest two rivals both set new annual sales records, with Honda up 5.5% and Toyota up 9.1%. Geely is still the best selling domestic brand and tops 1 million sales for the fourth consecutive year, despite sales down 9.5%. It narrowly stays ahead of Nissan, which gains market share with sales down 4.5%. Changan is the best performer in the top-25 with sales up 22.3% to jump ahead of Buick, itself up 6.3%. Audi is still China’s best selling luxury brand, but Mercedes-Benz and BMW are closing in as both are growing faster. All three brands set new annual sales records and move ahead of Hyundai which is the worst performer in the top-18 with sales down 35.4%. Hyundai also falls behind Chery, which is up 10.9% to enter the top-12. On the other hand, Baojun is down 29.1% to drop four places into 14th place, just ahead of BYD and sister brand Wuling. Chevrolet struggles even more at -39.7% to drop 5 places into 19th, just ahead of MG which sets a new annual record.
We also see annual sales records for Cadillac (#25, +8.2%), Hongqi (#26, +98%) and for Lynk & Co (#28, +37%) and its sister brand Volvo (#31, +12.9%). Hongqi sold nearly 200,000 cars, after it was relaunched with new models only in 2018. On the other end of the scale, Skoda is down 46% to 30th place, BAIC is down 62.5% to #34, Mitsubishi is down 43% to #38, Jeep is down 44.3% to #44, Peugeot is down 56.1 to #49 and Citroën is down 60.1% to #58.
In its first full year of sales, Jetta delivers just over 160,000 cars, good enough for 29th place. Best selling newcomer is Tesla at #32 with over 135,000 deliveries, ahead of LI Auto at #48, Leapmotor at #66, Geely’s Maple at #80 and Aiways at #81. Other startup EV brands set new annual sales records, with Great Wall’s Ora in 40th place, Nio at #43, Xpeng at #51, Weltmeister at #54 and Neta at #61.
Please note these figures are for locally produced models only, they exclude imported cars, which make up only a small portion (around 5%) of sales in China.
2020 Best Selling Car Brands In China
This data table looks at last month’s total automotive brand volumes in China by brand. We compare Chinese automotive brand sales with last year. With these sales numbers we also calculate a growth rate column so you can better gauge an individual automotive brands sales success in the Canadian market.
2020 Auto Brand Market Share Dynamics in China
This data table looks at total automotive sales and specific brand volumes in China. We compare Chinese automotive brand sales with last year. You can see the market share breakout visually for all the automotive brands selling in China.
2020 vs 2019 Auto Brand Sales in China
This chart simply takes each brand and compares their year to date sales with the year to date sales for the same time last year. Brands where the current bar is lower than the prior year bar have seen declines in sales year on year whereas brands with a larger current bar and lower prior bar are seeing growth in volumes year on year.
2020 Automotive Brand Sales Analysis in China
This chart might seem a little complicated at first but once you understand it is very helpful. First, the size of the area for each brand refers to their market share (i.e size). The bigger the circle the larger the brand in terms of sales volumes (YTD). The position of the circle in the chart along the left axis looks at the year to date growth of that brand. The higher the brand is on the chart, the more year to date growth it is seeing in sales volumes. Along the bottom axis you can see the total volumes shipped by that brand year to date.
Sources: Manufacturers, Chooseauto
