China 1998: Stable market hits 1.5 million units, Changhe (+28.7%), Wuling (+13.4%), VW (+9.5%) strong

The VW Santana continues to dominate the Chinese charts.

The Chinese new vehicle market only edges up 0.8% year-on-year in 1998 to 1,496,210 units, yet still an all-time record. Volkswagen (+9.5%) scores a robust result in the brands pole position with almost 300,000 sales and more than double the volume of #2 FAW Tianjin (-8.7%) in reverse. Wuling (+13.4%) and Changhe (+28.7%) both excel and gain two spots on 1997 to #3 and #4 respectively. As a result FAW (-9.8%) and Changan (-18.8%) fall to #5 and #6. Hafei (+29%) and Dongfeng (+26%) also post strong lifts in the remainder of the Top 10. Suzuki (#12) is the 2nd best-selling foreigner above Citroen (#13).

Model-wise, the VW Santana (+8.7%) continues to dominate, widening the gap with the VW Santana 2000 (-4.7%) at #2 to 18,500 sales vs. 3,000 last year. The FAW Tianjin Xiali (+3.1%) is getting very close to the 100,000 annual sales mark, missing it for just 332 units. The Changhe CH6300 (+31.6%) gains two ranks to #4, overtaking the Wuling Truck (+9.8%) and Changan Star (-18.8%). The VW Jetta (+52.7%) makes its first appearance inside the Top 10 at #7 thanks to its facelift launched in August of this year.

Full Year 1998 Top 65 All brands and Top 160 All models vs. Full Year 1997 figures below.