China LCV January 2013: Wuling Hongguang snaps up top spot!

Wuling Hongguang

* See the Top 5 best-selling LCV and Top 10 models overall by clicking on the title! *

In line with the Passenger Car market (up 46% year-on-year), Light Commercial Vehicle sales are up a whopping 30% year-on-year in January in China to 472,254 registrations. Massive surprise atop the models ranking: for the first time since November 2010, the Wuling Sunshine is not the best-seller! The culprit is the Wuling Hongguang, building on constant progress all through 2012 to land in pole position this month thanks to sales up 159% year-on-year to 47,765, kicking the Sunshine down to #2 at 45,733 units while the ChangAn Mini Bus follows just under at 44,389 sales.

The other very big surprise this month is that the best-selling vehicle in China is not a commercial vehicle for the first time since I started tracking Chinese LCV sales back in September 2010: the VW Lavida’s record month places it atop the overall ranking for the very first time with 48,267 sales, up a huge 207% year-on-year. The next best-selling passenger car, the Ford Focus, is #6.

Previous post: China LCV and All vehicles 2012: Wuling Sunshine #1

Previous month: China LCV December 2012: Wuling Hongguang back to #2

One year ago: China LCV January 2012: A newcomer in the Top 5

Full January 2013 Top 5 LCV and Top 10 overall Ranking Tables below.