China wholesales July 2024: BYD doubles VW sales, places 5 models in Top 6

The BYD Qin L surges to #5 overall in July.

Based on data by the Chinese Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), the Chinese wholesales market drops -5.2% year-on-year in July to 2,262,000 units. This includes 1,994,000 passenger cars (-5.1%) and 268,000 commercial vehicles (-6.6%). Likewise production is off -4.8% to 2,286,000 including 2,030,000 passenger cars (-4%) and 256,000 commercial vehicles (-10.5%). Year-to-date, wholesales remain up at +4.4% to 16,310,000 including 13,974,000 passenger cars (+4.5%) and 2,336,000 commercial vehicles (+3.5%). Production is up 3.4% to 16,179,000 including 13,917,000 passenger cars (+3.9%) and 2,262,000 commercial vehicles (+0.4%).

To counter the sluggish market, China’s National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance implemented the “Several measures to intensify support for large-scale equipment renewal and old-for-new replacement of consumer goods” Pfew! This consists of increased subsidies to boost the scrapping and renewal of both Passenger Cars and Commercial vehicles. This combined with the large number of new models hitting dealerships each month and local governments relaxing purchase restrictions and issuing additional license quotas should hopefully help maintain the market in positive this year.

The new L6 pushes Li Auto to a record 8th place in the brands ranking.

Meanwhile sales of New Energy Vehicles continue to gain ground. They are up 27% year-on-year in July to 991,000 or 43.8% of the market. This includes 551,000 BEVs (+2.6%) and 438,000 PHEVs (+80.7%). Year-to-date volumes are up 31.1% to 5,934,000 and 36.4% share including 3,570,000 BEVs (+10.1%) and 2,361,000 PHEVs (+84.5%). 887,000 NEVs were consumed locally in July (+30.7%) and 103,000 were exported (+2.2%) and year-to-date 5,226,000 NEVs were sold in China (+34.3%) and 708,000 exported (+11.4%). Production of NEVs gains 22.3% in July to 984,000 and 28.8% year-to-date to 5,914,000.

Overall exports are up 19.6% year-on-year in July to 469,000 units including 399,000 passenger cars (+22.4%) and 70,000 commercial vehicles (+5.8%). Over the first seven months of 2024, exports are up 28.8% to 3,262,000 including 2,738,000 passenger cars (+30.1%) and 524,000 commercial vehicles (+22.6%). Chery tops the exports list with 90,000 units for the month ahead of SAIC Motor (73,000), Geely (44,000), Changan (41,000), Great Wall Motor (38,000), BYD (31,000), Tesla (28,000), JAC (22,000), Dongfeng (19,000) and BAIC (19,000).

Record monthly volume for the AITO M9

Back to wholesales and the brands ranking where BYD continues to improve on extravagant results. The carmaker surges 36.2% year-on-year to end the month with a new all time high volume just below the 300,000 mark. This is more than double the result of Volkswagen (-16.6%) at 149,000. BYD benefits from stellar performances by the Destroyer 05 (+107.8%), Seal (+45.7%), Seagull (+39.2%) and Song Plus (+14.4%) but most of all by very successful new launches such as the Qin L (32,466 sales), Seal 06 (21,659) and Yuan UP (11,224). It’s not all doom and gloom at Volkswagen with the ID.4 X (+271%), Tayron (+28.1%), Passat (+13.1%), ID.3 (+12.3%), Touran (+3.9%), ID.4 Crozz (+2.6%) and T-Roc (+0.9%) all managing year-on-year lifts.

The Top 4 brands are identical to June and YTD with Toyota (-6.9%) in third place and Geely (-4.1%) at #4. Chery soars 23.4% year-on-year and six spots on last month to #5, believed to be the brand’s highest ranking ever, also hit in pandemic-disrupted February 2020. Honda (-42.5%) freefalls to #6 ahead of Wuling (-2.6%). LI Auto (+49.4%) breaks both its ranking and volume record at #8 with 51,000 sales, with Changan (-41.3%) and Mercedes (-8.6%) rounding out the Top 10 both in difficulty. Tesla (+47.1%) bounces back at #12. AITO (+834.8%) scores its second highest monthly volume at 39,552 and drops one spot on last month to #15. Jetour (+106.9%) is in excellent shape once again just as Leapmotor (+54.1%) breaks its volume record for the 2nd month running just above 22,000 units.

Leapmotor achieves a best ever monthly volume for the 2nd straight month.

Domestic carmakers continue to strengthen their hold on their home market: there’s only 13 foreign brands in the Top 40 this month and most of them sink. BMW is off -18.2%, Audi down -17.4%, Nissan at -21.4%, Buick at -47%, Ford at -21.7%, Hyundai at -37.9%, Volvo at -31.7%, Cadillac at -48.8%, Jetta at -41.6%, Kia at -4.5%, Mazda at -12.4%, Chevrolet at -80.6% (!), Peugeot at -31%, Jaguar at -8.1%, Land Rover at -25.6%, Skoda at -39.9%, Citroen at -47%, Infiniti at -33.3% and DS at -47.1%. Only Lincoln (+8.1%) stays afloat, although with just 4,549 sales and 0.2% of the market.

Looking at the models ranking in isolation, the BYD Qin Plus (+7%) reclaims the lead off the Tesla Model Y (+53.6%). In fact BYD places five models in the Top 6… a record. The Seagull (+39.2%) stays in third place above the Song Plus (+14.4%). The new Qin L surges 11 spots on last month to a record ranking at #5 and a record volume while the Yuan Plus (+8.5%) is up 1 rank to #6. The new Li L6 also breaks its ranking (#7) and volume records this month, as does the BYD Seal 06 up 60 spots on June to #9. The Nissan Sylphy (-27.1%) is down five ranks to #10. With the Destroyer 05 (+107.8%) at #12, the Song Pro (-2.5%) at #13, and the Han (-32.5%) at #15, BYD has 9 models in the Top 15. The AITO M9 once again breaks its volume record and advances to #14 overall.

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Full July 2024 Top 98 All brands and Top 551 All models below.