China wholesales August 2022: Market up 32.1% to new August record, BYD (+149.7%) best performer again

The BYD Song Plus misses out on a first monthly win for just 1,300 sales.

It’s a third consecutive month of generous year-on-year gains for the Chinese wholesales market in August. According to data released by the CAAM (China Association of Automobile Manufacturers), wholesales of locally-made vehicles jump a whopping 32.1% year-on-year this month to 2,383,000 units, easily breaking the record for the month with a previous best of 2,186,000 in 2020. As a result, the market tilts into positive year-to-date at +1.7% to 16,860,000 wholesales. This prolonged market euphoria is the result of a combination of three main factors: the 50% reduction of the purchase tax for vehicles with engines of 1.6L and below, which covers the large majority of the market, a low and microchip crisis-hampered year-ago volume and pent-up demand following 2 months of lockdown for Shanghai and other big cities earlier in the year. Note the production of new vehicles in August is up an even more impressive 38.3% year-on-year in August to 2,395,000 units.

Among wholesales, passenger vehicles lift 36.5% year-on-year to 2,125,000 units and commercial vehicles register their first year-on-year gain since April 2021 at +4% to 258,000 units. This is due to a new wave of infrastructure construction projects organised by the government to boost the economy. Year-to-date, passenger vehicles are up 11.7% to 14,655,000 units while commercial vehicles remain in steep negative at -36.2% to 2,206,000 units. Premium passenger vehicle brands leap 43.5% to 351,000 sales, leading to a year-to-date tally up 6.6% to 2,373,000 units. New Energy (=electrified) Vehicle sales double year-on-year to a new high of 666,000 units for the month, with BEVs up 93% to 522,000 and PHEVs ups 160% to 144,000. Year-to-date NEVs are up 110% to 3,860,000 including 3,040,000 EVs (+100%) and 818,000 PHEVs (+170%). Lastly exports are up to a record high 308,000 units in August and add up to 1,817,000 year-to-date.

VW sales trail the market in August.

Over in the brands ranking, Volkswagen (+17.9%) vastly underperforms but stays on top with a 40,0000-unit advantage over the #2. It can’t keep up with the market gains despite strong performances by the Golf (+271.2%), Sagitar (+187.2%), T-Roc (+95.8%), Magotan (+82.3%), Lamando (+52.7%), Bora (+49.1%) and Viloran (+45.9%). All the brand’s new EVs are up significantly on year-ago launch volumes but only the ID.6 Crozz is up month-on-month. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, in 2nd place BYD (+149.7%) is once again the outstanding performer in the entire Chinese market in August, smashing its volume record for the 4th consecutive month and the 5th time in the past 6 months. The brand’s high mark has gone from 104,500 in March to almost 169,000 this month. The Song Plus (+140.1%), Qin Plus (+62.9%), Han (+187.6%), Dolphin (+1227.5%) and new Destroyer 5 all set volume records.

Toyota (+85.7%) is back up one spot on July to third place, almost tripling the market growth. The brand is propelled forward thanks to outstanding results by the Crown Kluger (+440.2%), Levin (+115.1%), Camry (+99.1%), Corolla (+97.3%), RAV4 (+68.1%) and Wildlander (+47.4%) as well as successful launches by the Corolla Cross, Front Lander and Sienna. Honda (+60.8%) is down to #4 but also above the market growth rate, with the Avancier (+10917.8%), Crider (+1879.5%), CR-V (+274.5%), Inspire (+210.9%), UR-V (+134.5%), Civic (+134.4%) and Breeze (+97.7%) performing best. Below, Changan (+19.8%), Nissan (-2.2%), Buick (+1.8%), Geely (-21.8%) and Wuling (-17.7%) all miss out on the fast market growth. Mercedes (+80.9%) tops luxury brands just above BMW (+1%) and Audi (+45.5%), with all three brands fitting within less than 700 wholesales.

The Aion S is GAC’s best-selling model in China this month.

Notice Tesla (-22.7%) at #16 with exports now removed for August and year-to-date. Among additional big gainers we find GAC (+82.9%) whose Aion EV lineup has now truly taken off with the Aion S (record 11,683) and Aion Y (11,012) now being the brand’s best-sellers. Hongqi (+162.9%) is the only other Top 20 brand to beat the market. EV brands have another outstanding month, with Geometry (+504.6%), Neta (+142.2%) and Leap Motor (+179.1%) all reaching all-time highs as do newcomers AITO (first tie above 10,000 units) and Zeekr (7,166). Voyah (+499.8%), Lynk & Co (+139.5%), Cowin (+85%), NIO (+81.6%), TANK (+65.6%), Venucia (+57.7%) and Citroen (+55.4%) also shine. Among new brands, below AITO and Zeekr we have IM (#75), Shenlan (#76) new for the month, EV Young (#79) and Enovate (#84).

Model-wise, the Nissan Sylphy (+7.2%) reclaims the top spot it holds year-to-date despite a meagre year-on-year uptick. The BYD Song Plus (+140.1%) is up two spots on July to a record 2nd place, bot models dislodging the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV (-17.8%) from its July top spot. The Qin Plus (+62.9%) makes it two BYD in the Top 4 while the Tesla Model Y (+80.9%) rallies back up 26 ranks on last month to #5 with a volume excluding exports. With exports it would be by far #1 with 62,169 units. Below the VW Lavida (-24%) in serious difficulty, the rest of the Top 10 all drive faster than the market with the Honda CR-V (+274.5%), BYD Han (+187.6%) and Toyota Corolla (+97.3%) the best performer and the VW Bora (+49.1%) a notch below. Missing out on a first Top 10 finish by just 150 sales, the BYD Dolphin (+1227.5%) is nevertheless up to a record #11. The BYD Yuan Plus (#24) is the best-selling recent launch above the Changan UNI-V (#32), Toyota Corolla Cross (#62) and its twin the Front Lander (#64).

Previous month: China wholesales July 2022: Market up 29.7%, BYD (+177.7%) and Wuling Hongguang Mini EV break records

One year ago: China wholesales August 2021: Wuling Hongguang Mini EV scores first win, market off -17.8%

Full August 2022 Top 100 all-brands and Top 495 all-models below.