China May 2012: Chevrolet Sail leads the way, Ford Focus #2

Chevrolet Sail

* See the Top 264 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *

Reshuffle atop the Chinese models ranking in May: for the first time ever, the Chevrolet Sail is the best-selling model in the country with 30,163 sales, 27,579 of which are the sedan version. This pole position is the culmination of consistent growth over the last 12 months since the new model was released, with its previous best ranking being #2 last March. The Sail is only the third model in Chinese history to sell over 30,000 monthly units after the BYD F3 which last passed this milestone in March 2010 and the VW Passat last January.

Ford Focus

The other great performer this month in China is the new generation Ford Focus up to 2nd place with 23,140 sales, ahead of the Buick Excelle down to #3 after 3 consecutive months on top at 23,085 units. The Excelle is still #1 year-to-date by far with 122,642 sales vs. 112,274 for the Sail. This means that potentially for the first time ever the Chinese podium is composed of 100% American models.

Venucia D50

The VW Magotan breaks into the Chinese Top 10 for the first time at #9 with a best-ever 17,612 units, the Audi A6L is up 5 spots on April to #14 with an outstanding 15,208 sales (vs. 4,840 in Germany!), the VW Sagitar is up 20 to #15, the VW Golf up 2 to #19, the BMW 5 Series L up 14 to #28 and the Chery Fulwin 2 up 23 to #44.

FAW Oley

With sales of the Great Wall Haval H3/H5 and H6 now counted separately, there is no Chinese model in the Top 20! The local best-seller is the Chery QQ at a weak #22, followed by the FAW Xiali N3/N5 at #24, the Great Wall Haval H6 at #29, the BYD F3 at #35, the Chery Tiggo at #36 and the Great Wall Voleex C30 at #38.

Great Wall Haval M4

Launched last month, the Venucia D50, Nissan’s first attempt at a low-cost brand/model is already up 69% and 45 spots to land at #77 with 4,816 sales, only 197 units below the Baojun 630, GM’s low-cost brand/model, and well above the Ciimo Si Ming also launched in April but down 17 ranks to #135.

Zotye Z300

The FAW Weizhi V5 is up 49 spots to #110, the Great Wall Hover M4 is up 486% and 85 ranks to #112 with 3.118 units, the GAC Trumpchi GS5 is up 75% to #188 and the Gonow Aoosed GX5 up 371% to #207. There are three new entrants in the Chinese ranking this month: the FAW Oley lands directly at #100 with 3,425 units, the Zotye Z300 is #198 with 583 sales and the Roewe 950 is #218 with 315 units.

Previous month: China April 2012: Two more low-cost brands make their debut

One year ago: China May 2011: VW Lavida on top, Nissan Sunny in Top 10

Full May 2012 Top 264 Ranking Table below.