China 7 months 2012: Chevy Sail & VW Passat big winners

Chevrolet Sail

* See the Top 280 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *

As it is now the tradition on BSCB, after exploring this month’s models ranking in China, we now put the spotlight on year-to-date sales to extract longer-term trends. Over the first 7 months of 2012, the Buick Excelle remains the country’s best-seller with sales up 20% to 168,378. The big event is obviously the ‘coming of age’ of the Chevrolet Sail, up 8 spots and 63% year-on-year to land in 2nd place at 161,297 units, having managed to rank #1 twice this year: in May and July.

VW Passat

The next two models see their ranking unchanged year-on-year: the VW Jetta up 5% to 138,495 sales at #3 and the Chevrolet Cruze up 14% to 135,286 units at #4. In 5th place is the other big mover in the Top 10: the VW Passat (US version), up 13 ranks and 68% to 132,642 sales, even ranking #1 in January. The other noticeable move in the year-to-date Top 10 is the fall of the VW Lavida from #2 a year ago to #9 wiith 119,478 units at -12%.

VW Magotan

Other great performers atop the ranking include the Hyundai Verna up 67% and 19 spots to #10, the VW Tiguan up 50% and 12 to #11, the Nissan Tiida up 107% and 37 to #12, the Honda CR-V up 47% and 14 to #13, the VW Magotan (the European new gen Passat) up 118% and 45 to #18, the Audi A6L up 37% and 15 to #21, the Kia K2 up 1677% and 155 ranks to #26, the Toyota RAV4 up 49% and 20 to #31, the Hyundai Sonata up 151% and 57 to #44 and the BYD S6 up 395% and 102 spots to #50.

Emgrand EC7

As far as Chinese models are concerned, while a year ago there were 2 in the Top 6 and 3 in the Top 12, this year the highest ranking local model is only #17 and it’s the FAW Xiali N3/N5 (-19%). It is followed by the Great Wall Haval H3/H5 at #23 (+6%), the Chery QQ at #25 (-11%), the BYD F3 at #27 (-37% and 23 ranks!), the Great Wall Voleex C30 at #29 (-12%) and the Emgrand EC7 at #30, the only Chinese model in the Top 30 to see its sales progress year-on-year at +28%.

Brilliance V5

We have to go down to #60 to find the first all-new model: the Baojun 630 with 39,089 sales. The Great Wall Haval H6, already the best-selling local car in July, follows at #69 with 36,598 units, ahead of the Peugeot 308 at #73, the Mazda3 Xingcheng at #80, the Brilliance V5 at #101 and the BYD G6 at #105. Below the Baojun 630, other low-cost models are the Linian S1 at #123 and the Venucia D50 at #132.

Previous post: China July 2012: Hyundai Elantra and VW Sagitar shine

Previous month: China 6 months 2012: 3 US models in Top 4, no Chinese in Top 15!

One year ago: China July 2011: Toyota Corolla leads for the first time

Full 7 months 2012 Top 280 Ranking Table below.