Compact sedan market in China over the first three quarters of 2015

The Chinese sedan market as a whole has suffered negative growth over the past few years. The always competitive compact car segment has not been able to escape this market trend. That figure is 7.2% lower than the over 5.3 million sold over the first three quarters of 2014. Compact sedans made up for 35.7% of all passenger automobiles sold over the first three quarters of the year, down 4.7 percent points from a year ago. This decline is due to increasingly diversifying consumer preferences, with many buyers of second vehicles choosing to purchase SUVs.

German brands continue to lead the compact sedan market. A total of 1.49 million German compact sedans were sold from January to September, down 6.1% from the previous year. Meanwhile, a total of 1.08 million domestic own brand sedans were sold over the same period of time, down 8.5% from the previous year. Sales of American, Korean and French branded compact sedans also fell, respectively decreasing 7.5%, 29.4% and 12.9% year-on-year.

Not all sales figures were discouraging. Japanese compact sedans as a whole saw their sales grow, increasing 14.6% from 706,050 units sold over the first three quarters of last year to 809,441 units sold over the first three quarters of this year. Japanese brands make up 16.4% of all compact sedans sold in the country, down 3.1 percent points from the previous year.
The Volkswagen Lavida was the best-selling compact sedan of the first three quarters of the year. It was followed by the Nissan Bluebird Sylphy, VW Santana, VW Jetta, VW Sagitar, Buick Excelle, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra, Toyota Corolla and Chevrolet Cruze.