China December 2013: Honda Crider breaks into Top 10!

Honda Crider

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Thanks to over 2 million vehicles sold in December, up 18% year-on-year, China confirms its status of biggest car market in the world and finishes 2013 at 21.98 million units, up 14% on 2012 and the first time any country crosses the symbolic 20 million annual sales milestone. Excluding LCVs, the market is up 18% on 2012 to 17.93 million units. Let’s go through December results first, keeping in mind these exclude LCVs. The Wuling Hongguang is the best-selling model in the country for the 5th consecutive month thanks to 41,773 sales and confirming its #1 spot in the final 2013 annual ranking at a record 448,484 units. It is followed like in November by the Ford Focus with 38,299 sales while the VW Lavida jumps back onto the podium at #3 and 33,591 units, up 68% year-on-year.

Nissan Sylphy

Last month the Nissan Sylphy delivered the best-ever monthly volume for a Japanese model in China at 31,333 sales, well this month it beats this record again at #4 with 32,160 units! This is 73% better than in December 2012 and a very impressive performance indeed. In fact a lot of models have beaten their all-time volume record in December as we will see further below. The Chevrolet Sail is back up 4 spots on last month to return in the Top 5 for the first time since last June, passing the Buick Excelle (+73%) and Chevrolet Cruze (+52%) notably. Amazingly, the Haval H6 breaks its monthly volume record for the 6th month in a row, lifting it to 23,746 sales in 9th place, up 53% year-on-year!

The Roewe 350 reaches best-ever #21 ranking and 15,883 sales this month.

Launched in June, the Honda Crider hasn’t stopped climbing the sales charts since, and at a very fast pace. It now breaks into the monthly Top 10 for the very first time, up 9 spots on November to #10 with 22,593 units! This is the Crider’s first time above 20,000 monthly sales and it enables it to become Honda’s best-seller in the country this month, just above the Accord also in fantastic shape, up 14 ranks on last month and 85% year-on-year to #11 and 22,185 units. The Emgrand EC7 breaks its monthly volume record for the third month in a row at #13 with 21,424 sales, up 34% on December 2012. Inside the Top 20, notice also the VW Santana up 320% year-on-year to #13, Toyota RAV4 up 172% to #15 and the VW Tiguan up 277% to #19.

The Beijing E-Series also breaks its ranking and volume records this month in China.

The Roewe 350 also breaks all its records, up 15 spots and 31% on November which was already a record-breaking month for the nameplate and lifting its personal bests to #21 and 15,883 sales, ranking #4 among Chinese models. The Venucia R50/D50 breaks into the monthly Top 30 for the first time at #26 and a best-ever 13,751 sales, up 63% year-on-year, the Toyota Vios is up 3 spots to #28 at 13,086 units for only the 2nd month for this generation, the Great Wall M4 is up 48% to a record 12,232 sales, the Beijing E-Series is up a further 19% on a record-breaking November and a whopping 278% year-on-year to a best-ever #35 and 11,392 units.

The Hyundai Mistra is already above 10,000 monthly units.

4 models break the 10,000 monthly sales barrier for the first time in December. The Hyundai Mistra slices its November ranking in two, up to #45 and 10,502 units, passing this milestone as early as for its first full month of sales in the country at 10,502, the ChangAn Eado is up 103% year-on-year to #46 and 10,399 sales, the Chery E3 reaches this level at its 4th month, up 11 spots and 14% on last month to #48 and 10,221 units and the Baojun 630 is up 77% year-on-year to #49 with 10,220 sales. Further down, notice the Citroen C-Elysee up 165% on December 2012 to #58 thanks to the new generation, the Haima M3 up 20 spots on November to #63, Dongfeng Fengguang up 19 to #74, Fiat Viaggio up 85% year-on-year to #78 and the Peugeot 301 up 42 ranks to #149.

No less than 8 all-new models make their first appearance in this month’s ranking, but this will be the subject of a separate post…

Previous month: China November 2013: Nissan Sylphy delivers best month ever for a Japanese model

One year ago:  China December 2012: New generation VW Jetta up to #2

Full December 2013 Top 324 All-models Ranking Table below.