Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. posted strong sales increases in China last year despite a protracted contraction in the overall new-vehicle market.
Toyota Motor delivered roughly 1.62 million vehicles under the Toyota and Lexus brands in China last year, an increase of 9 percent, the company’s China office said.
Sales at the Toyota brand rose 8.4 percent to roughly 1.42 million while deliveries at Lexus surged 25 percent to top 200,000.
In 2019, Honda sold 1,554,433 vehicles in the market under the Honda and Acura brands, a gain of 8.5 percent.
The company said volume was mainly generated by the Civic, Accord, Crider and Fit sedans, and the CR-V, XR-V and Vezel crossovers. The eight products each generated sales of more than 100,000 last year, Honda’s China office said.
Honda didn’t reveal separate sales results for the Acura band.
Sales at the Nissan brand ended 2019 virtually unchanged at 1,546,891, according to Nissan Motor Co.’s China office.
The office didn’t disclose local deliveries of Nissan’s luxury brand, Infiniti.
Two smaller Japanese automakers -- Mazda Motor Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. -- saw their China sales decline last year in tandem with the overall market.
Deliveries at Mazda slipped 16 percent to 227,750 while volume at Mitsubishi dropped 7.6 percent 133,016.