China March 2014: VW Jetta & Chana Honor hit all-time records, Fiat sparks

Fiat Ottimo

* See the Top 304 best-selling models and Top 63 brands by clicking on the title! *

New Passenger Car sales in China are up 8% year-on-year in March to 1.6 million units. In the models ranking, the Wuling Hongguang is testing new territories, up 28% on March 2013 to 63,827 sales and 210,109 units year-to-date, that’s a 850,000 annual sales rate! The VW Lavida continues to progress in 2nd place at 43,386 sales (+13%) while the Ford Focus drops 4% to 36,219 units. Three models break their all-time monthly volume record in the Top 20: the first is the VW Jetta, up 47% to 27,928 units (previous best: 27,719 in October 2013).

The Chana Honor sells over 20,000 units in a single month for the first time.

The Haval H6 is up 49% to #9 with 24,602 sales (previous best: 24,602 in January 2014), breaking its volume record for the 8th time in the last 9 months! FInally the Chana Honor is up a huge 79% on March 2013 to land at a best-ever 16th place with 20,259 sales (previous best: 15,952 in January 2014). Other great performers atop the Chinese ranking this month include the VW Golf up 58% to #22, the Toyota Vios reaching new ranking and volume records at #26, the ChangAn Eado up an extremely impressive 131% year-on-year to #27 and the Nissan Teana up 150% to #30 thanks to the new model.

Zotye T600

As far as recent launches are concerned, the Toyota Yaris L is up a further 26 ranks to #60, the Chery Tiggo 5 up 13 to #78, the Suzuki S-Cross up to #107,  the Zotye T600 up 18 to #144 and the Fiat Ottimo up 58 to #148. Boosted by the new generation, the Nissan X-Trail is up 289% year-on-year and 84 spots on February to #120.

The ChangAn CS75 is one of 4 all-new models in China this month.

Four new models make their very first appearance in the Chinese ranking this month, but they all barely register a blip on the sales charts for now. The Skoda Rapid Spaceback lands at #245 with 459 sales, the Zotye E20 ranks 270th at 142 units, the ChangAn CS75 is at #287 with 31 sales and the Audi A3, clearly the model with the most potential of all, arrives very discreetly at #291 with 9 sales, no doubt this ranking will improve drastically over the coming months.

Previous post: China March 2014: Growth slows to 8% – 24 million annual rate

Previous month: China February 2014: VW Santana takes off at +189%

One year ago: China March 2013: VW Lavida and Ford Focus in command

Full March 2014 Top 304 models and Top 63 brands Ranking Tables below.