Domestic autobrands grab more share

Domestic vehicle brands' total market share increased in September, ending a year of declines, industry figures showed on Tuesday.

Vehicle sales by all producers totaled 1,662,685 units, including cars, multipurpose vehicles, sports utility vehicles and minivans, the China Passenger Car Association said. Sales rose 8.7 percent year-on-year and 16.1 percent month-on-month.

For the first nine months, sales were up 11 percent, a figure that industry experts described as healthy and promising.

Sales of domestic brands increased almost 7 percent year-on-year in September and almost 20 percent month-on-month. But the important news was in terms of market share, with domestic brands taking up 38.54 percent. That was 0.19 percentage point higher than a year earlier and 1.41 percentage points higher than in August, the month their total sales hit a five-year low.

"The monthly growth rate was below 10 percent, as auto producers shifted their focus to 'green' cars in reaction to the government's recently announced new-energy vehicle list for subsidies in mid-September," said Rao Da, secretary-general of the association. "The increase is still in line with our expectations."

He attributed domestic brands' recovery to their new products in the "demanding" SUV and MPV segments, as well as the government's green policy stimulus and a healthy market environment.

Rao said that he expected a high sales increase in October, partly because of the new subsidy policy and partly because the fourth quarter is always high season for passenger vehicles.

"Domestic brands occupied 102 positions, or 62.6 percent of the long-waited list (for subsidies), which included 163 models in total. The automakers with higher investments in research and development, like Changan Automobile Group, Chery Automobile, BYD Co Ltd, and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co Ltd will see the benefits soon," said Rao.

Dong Yang, secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, appealed for wide official use of domestic brand vehicles, which he said will "truly encourage and promote struggling domestic brands".

"The brands put a lot of effort into their achievements over the past decade. Some major original equipment manufacturers have been doing their own technology research and development" instead of continuing to rely on foreign technologies, said Dong.

He also said domestic brands' quality, performance and safety had improved greatly in recent years. "The entry into more model segments to meet specific requirements also contributed to their improvement."