China Auto Sales Slowing on Lower Economic Growth

Chinese car buyers purchased 1.67 million cars in April, according to a report from the Chinese Association of Automobile Manufacturers, cited at The Wall Street Journal. Total first-quarter sales came in at 6.27 million light vehicles, according to data from focus2move.

In the first quarter, Volkswagen remained the share leader with 13.8% of the Chinese market, up 2.4% year-over-year. Yet the biggest quarterly gains were posted by domestic makers Great Wall Motors, up 109.5%, and ChangAn, up 19.8%.

And where did most of those gains come from? Sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and mini-vans, what else? And sales from domestic automakers grew in the first quarter and continued growing in April, at the expense of foreign makers like VW, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) and General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM).

The best-selling vehicle in the first quarter was the Wuling Hongguang mini-van, produced by a consortium including GM, Wuling and SAIC. Total sales topped 189,000. Great Wall Motors’ best-selling vehicle was the Haval H6 compact SUV, which sold 87,749 units in the first quarter, a year-over-year increase of more than 29%.

The Wall Street Journal noted that April sales for U.S. makers Ford and GM were flat and down 1%, respectively. Foreign carmakers’ sales were down 3% year-over-year in April, which analysts have attributed to the rise in sales of the lower cost Chinese-made SUVs and vans.

In the first quarter, GM sales improved 6.6% year-over-year and Ford sales rose 3.4%, but combined the two U.S. carmakers sold fewer vehicles than did VW, the market share leader in China.

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