China January 2013: VW Lavida smashes all-time monthly record

VW Lavida

* See the Top 289 All-models and Top 64 All-brands rankings by clicking on the title! *

Finally Chinese models data for January is in, and it’s a whopper month indeed: up 46% on January 2012 now that Japanese carmakers are back in shape. The biggest event this month is the unreal level reached by the VW Lavida, now taking full advantage of the new generation and up to an incredible 48,267 sales in just one month. This is almost 10,000 units above the previous Passenger Car monthly volume record of 38,362 sales detained by the Ford Focus last November, and the first time a Passenger Car sells upwards of 40,000 units in a single month. In fact in January 15 models sold over 20,000 units and 44 sold over 10,000, which are new records to be compared to just 9 and 27 respectively in the USA during the same month…

Hyundai Verna

The Ford Focus is down to #2 with a still excellent 33,632 sales, while the Buick Excelle doubles its December figure to pass the 30,000 monthly unit-milestone for the first time at 30,264 sales, becoming the 6th model to have reached  that level after the BYD F3, VW Passat, Lavida, Chevrolet Sail and Ford Focus. The VW Sagitar is down one spot to #6 but breaks its monthly record at 26,184 units while the Hyundai Verna is up 10 to a best-ever #7 and 25,684 sales, its very first time above 20,000 monthly units.

Chery QQ

Plenty more records fall: the Nissan Sylphy at 24,769 sales, Buick Excelle XT/GT at 23,694 and Hyundai Elantra Langdong at 22,177 all pass the 20,000 sales mark for the first time while the Chevrolet Cruze (24,477) and VW Tiguan (21,818) both beat their monthly record. It is also a good month for locals: the Chery QQ leads the way at #16 with 18,622 sales, its 2nd best-ever monthly result below the 19,983 units from January 2010, while two of its direct followers beat their monthly record: the Emgrand EC7 is #17 with 18,516 sales and the Great Wall Haval H6 is #22 at 16,621 units, with the Great Wall Voleex C30 in between at #19.

Peugeot 3008

Notice also the Audi A6L nearly doubling its sales year-on-year to a record 16,706 units (#21), DongFeng Future up 25 spots to a best-ever #35, Great Wall Haval M4 up 8 to a record #40, Venucia R50/D50 up 9 to a best-ever #41, all 3 models passing the 10,000 monthly unit-benchmark for the first time, the Lifan X60 breaking into the Top 50 for the first time at #48 (+54), the Buick Encore up 51 to #65, ChangAn CS35 up 46 to break into the Top 100 for the first time at #92 and the Peugeot 3008 landing directly at #99 with 5,196 sales for its first month in market.

Lifan 720

Further down, we welcome a few other newcomers in the ranking this month: the Citroen C4L lands at #110 with 4,355 units, the Mitsubishi ASX is #164 with 2,017 sales, Lifan 720 #210 at 593 units, Lifan 530 #239 with 196 sales and Luxgen Master CEO #267 at 32 units.

Previous post: China Full Year 2012: Ford Focus triumphs

Previous month: China December 2012: New generation VW Jetta up to #2

One year ago: China January 2012: Huge month for the VW Passat

Full January 2013 Top 289 All- models and Top 64 All-brands Ranking Tables below.