Data from China Automotive Technology and Research Center, short for CATARC, showed that retailing sales of vehicles in Chinese automotive market totaled 6.063 million units in the first quarter of 2016, a yearly rise of 6.7%. Among them, retailing sales of passenger vehicles reached 5.380 million units with a yearly rise of 5.2% while that of Multiple Purpose Vehicles stood at 683 thousand units with a yearly rise of 19.5%.

 

The main reason of growth rate going down in the first quarter lies in that price of real estate reducing leads to customers choose to buy house rather than vehicles in 2016 and that the sales boom at the end of 2015 results in a big base, according to CATARC.

 

From the perspective of segment, both small SUV models and medium SUV models are two key factors driving growth of retailing sales of passenger vehicles. The sales of small SUVs increased by 118,000 units compared with that of last year while that of medium SUVs increased by 314,000 units. On the contrary, sales of cars and mini vans both suffered a decline.

 

To be noticed, sales of Chinese brands increased by 87,000 units on a yearly basis, to which good performance of SUV models and MPV models has made great contributions. Sales of SUVs of Chinese brands increased by 287,000 units with a year-on-year rise of 44.1%.And sales of MPVs of Chinese brands increased by 100,000 units with a year-on-year rise of 19.4%.

 

It is notable that, in the first quarter, the proportion of customers loyal to Chinese brands when buying new vehicles increased from 37.1% in 2015 to 37.1% of this year. And loyalty to Chinese brands mainly results from Chinese brands investing more on developing SUV models.

 

As government subsidies cut down, sales of alternative energy vehicles decreased considerably.

 

With market, economic and political factors considered, CATARC expects that the growth rate of Chinese automotive market in next quarter may double that in the first quarter. Growth rate of automotive market will be 7.8% overall with that of passenger vehicles reaching 6.7% and that of Multiple Purpose Vehicles achieving a yearly rise of about 15%.