Shanghai VW Leads China Feb Sedan Sales
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Last month, China produced 414,000 sedans and sold 421,000 sedans. From December 2008 to February 2009, China's passenger car sales exceeded the output and cleared 287,000 units from the inventories during the three months. This is seen as a sign of China auto market's recovery, mainly stimulated by the government's recent support packages, was not expected by many carmakers.
Top seller Shanghai VW's sales of 42,899 units accounted for more than 10% of the country's total sedan sales, while BYD passed Chery for the first time as the sales champion of Chinese-brand cars. The remarkable sales growth of Shanghai VW is attributed to multiple favorable factors such as sales tax cuts and price reductions. In Feb. 17, the joint venture cut the prices of its 2.0L Touran MPV, Polo compact cars and Santana Vista sedans by nearly 12% on average.
In February, Shanghai VW sold more than 8,000 Polo small cars, up 90% month on month (m/m), over 5,000 Santana Vista sedans, up 32.5% m/m; and the sales of its flagship models Passat, Santana and Lavida had each topped 7,000 units. These models have contributed most to the company's sales leadership last month.
Shanghai VW fell short of its sales target in 2008, and the company has announced a more conservative 1% sales growth plan for this year, aiming to sell 495,000 units, compared with 490,000 sold in 2008. Its price cuts in mid-February seem to be an effective move to boost sales.
A total of 607,984 passenger cars were sold in China last month, up from 456,901 of February 2008, but slightly down from 610,600 units of January 2009, but, data released by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed.
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