China 2006: Wuling Van dominates, VW Jetta reclaims PC first place, Buick Excelle close 2nd

The VW Jetta is back to the #1 spot in the Passenger Car charts.

New vehicle sales in China are back to their extravagant growth rate at +26.2% year-on-year in 2006 to 6,765,512 units, eclipsing 6 million units for the first time. Volkswagen (+38.2%) rallies back from two mediocre years and passes the 600,000 annual sales milestone for the first time. Wuling (+40.5%) advances one spot to toppled Changan (-11.2%) in difficulty this year. Honda (+27.6%) gains two ranks to #4, overtaking Hyundai (+21.7%) which stays at #5. Buick (+20.5%) is up one spot to #6 while Toyota (+81.7%) breaks into the Top 10 at #8 as does Chery (+49.3%) at #9. Below, Geely (+35.3%) stays at #13, Ford (+77.7%) shows great strength and climbs to #16 overall and BYD (+447.2%) goes from #47 in 2004 to #29 this year.

Buick Excelle

In the models ranking, the Wuling Van (+44.8%) convincingly snaps the pole position with over 383,000 sales, the highest annual volume by any vehicle in China so far. It overtakes the Changan Star (-14%) by over 70,000 units. The Foton Forland (+4.4%) is also down one spot to #3.

Over in the Passenger Car race, following on from its amazing run last year, the FAW Tianjin Xiali is the first Passenger Car to sell over 100,000 units in China in 6 months, at 103,100 by end of June 2006. The Hyundai Elantra was 2nd then at 99,900 sales, followed by the Buick Excelle at 98,800 and the VW Jetta at 97,600. The Full Year ranking ends up being radically different. The FAW Xiali was #1 up until July, but then, boosted by an exceptional summer (18,844 sales in August), the VW Jetta (+25.6%) reclaims the pole position it held in 2004. The Hyundai Elantra (-1%) ranks 2nd again above the Buick Excelle (+15%) – which finishes the year with an outstanding 20,238 sales in December, and the FAW Tianjin Xiali (-6.3%). Notice also the VW Passat up 70.9%, the Chery Qiyun up 307% and the Ford Focus up 491%.

Full Year 2006 Top 100 All brands and Top 367 All models vs. Full Year 2005 figures below.