China February 2013: Lavida leads, 1 of 6 Volkswagens in Top 8

VW Lavida

* See the Top 292 All-locally produced models and Top 64 All-brands by clicking on the title!

Disrupted by the Lunar New Year celebrations which encroached on February much more than in 2012, new car sales in China are down 14% year-on-year in February to 1,354,600 registrations, however thanks to a whopping month of January, the year-to-date total is still up a very healthy 15% on 2012 at 3,389,100 units. The VW Lavida holds onto the top spot with an excellent 34,889 sales, up 59% year-on-year. It is followed by the Ford Focus at 24,735 units (+93%) and the Chevrolet Sail with 22,401 sales (+26%). And the latter are the only two non-Volkswagen models in the Top 8!

VW Sagitar

The German manufacturer tightens its grip on the Chinese Passenger Car market this month indeed, placing no less than 6 models in The Top 8… The Passat is up one spot to #4 at 18,060 units, ahead of the Sagitar up 123% year-on-year to 17,678 sales, the Jetta down 7% to 16,999, the Tiguan up 9% to a fantastic 7th place at 16,890 units and the Polo up 12 spots on January to #8 with 15,368 sales, up 60% year-0n-year and the nameplate’s highest ranking in China in almost two years (since April 2011).

BYD F3 Surui

Further down, the Buick Excelle XT/GT is up one further rank to #11, its second best position in China below the #6 it reached in January 2012, the Emgrand EC7 is the most popular Chinese model once again at #16 with 11,557 sales (+25%) followed by the Chery QQ at #19 and Great Wall Haval H6 at #20. The BYD F3 Surui (new generation) climbs up 10 ranks to hit a best-ever #21 spot at 10,090 units while the Kia K2 is also at its best-ever ranking in the country at #22 (+6).

2013 VW Santana

Starting to feel the effects of either the new generation slipping into dealerships or the old one in runout mode, or both, the VW Santana is up 70% year-on-year and 15 spots on January to #24. The DongFeng Future holds at a record #35, the Chevrolet Malibu is up 25 to #41, the ChangAn Eado breaks into the Top 50 for the first time at #48, the Great Wall Haval M4 stays inside that same Top 50 for the 2nd month running at #49 and the Buick Encore is up 4 spots to #61.

ChangAn Raeton

Among recent launches, the Peugeot 3008 is down 13 ranks on January to #112, the Citroen C4L down 12 to #122, Fiat Viaggio down 18 to #135, Mitsubishi ASX up 16 to #148, Lifan 720 up 15 to #195, GAC Trumpchi GA5 up 10 to #196 and ChangAn Raeton up 66 to #211. Finally, we welcome 4 new models in the ranking this month: the Ford Kuga at #168, Skoda Rapid at #205, Cadillac XTS at #242 and ChangAn Ouliwei at #271.

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

One year ago: China February 2012: Buick Excelle leads, Chevrolet Malibu arrives

Full February 2013 Top 292 All-models and Top 64 All-brands Ranking Tables below.