China retail Full Year 2020: Changan (+26.8%), Toyota (+7.6%) headline market down -7.5%

Toyota sales are up 7.6% in 2020, partly thanks to the new RAV4.

We’re catching up on lost time today with full monthly September to December 2020 China retail sales data available as well as Full Year 2020. BSCB is the only non-Chinese medium to cover both wholesales (ex-factory shipments) and retail sales data for China so you can get the most complete picture of the largest new car market in the world. Retail sales tend to give a more authentic picture of the market as they roughly correspond to registrations by end-customers and are more difficult to artificially boost by manufacturers which can sometimes be the case for wholesales data. The selection of vehicles included in this update is up 7.5% year-on-year in December to 2.556.231 and down -8.5% over the Full Year 2020 to 19.057.657 units. Note pickups and medium to heavy commercial vehicles are not included in this dataset, but it includes a more detail split by model variant (VW Tayron and Tayron X, Teramont and Teramont X for example).

In the retail brands ranking, Volkswagen (-15.9%) drops almost twice as fast as the market as the Tacqua (+6291.6%), Teramont X (+127.4%), T-Cross (+33.5%), Bora (+16%), Tharu (+13.5%), CC (+10.3%), Tayron (+5%) and new Viloran (11.423) can’t compensate for freefalls by the Touran (-52.5%), Polo (-45.4%), Passat (-40.5%), Teramont (-38.6%), Phideon (-35.8%), Lamando (-33.2%), Santana (-30.1%) and Tiguan (-29.7%). In 2nd place, Honda (-4.8%) beats the market thanks to the new Breeze (+1739.7%), Vezel (+27.1%), Elysion (+19.3%), CR-V (+6.5%) and XR-V (+6.3%). Toyota (+7.6%) is the only gainer in the Top 5, benefitting from strong performances by the Avalon (+127.4%), Yaris L (+27.7%), RAV4 (+21.9%), Levin (+12.2%) and the new Wildlander (58.027). Nissan (-5.6%) and Geely (-15.3%) complete a Top 5 unchanged on last year.

Changan (+26.8%) is the best performer in the Top 10 and climbs two spots on 2019 to land in 7th place. Mercedes (+9.2%), BMW (+9.1%), Audi (+8.2%) and Buick (+2%) are also up near the top. Further down, Hongqi (+99.8%) doubles its sales year-on-year while COS (+315.3%) is up 4-fold, with Ora (+50.5%), Lynk & Co (+31.4%), Volvo (+16.8%), Jetour (+4.9%), Cadillac (+4.9%) and Chery (+0.2%) also up. Jetta clocks in a first full year of sales at over 147.000 units while Tesla is just under 139.000 units for its first 12 months of locally-produced sales. Two very strong launches.

Looking at monthly sales figures for the September-December period, A series of carmakers finished the year on a high: Hongqi broke its all-time volume record in September, November and December to lift it to 30.973, Lynk & Co had record volumes each month between September and December to lift its all-time high to 27.204 and Tesla broke its volume record in both November and December to lift it to 23.481. Volvo increased its highest mark twice over the period to 18.664 in December, Jetta (17.877) and Jetour (17.406) had record months in December, Ora broke its volume record each month over the period to bring it to 12.425 in December, as did NIO to 6.937.

Over in the models ranking, the Nissan Sylphy (+11.3%) topples the VW Lavida (-9.7%) as it also does in the wholesales charts, with the Toyota Corolla (-0.6%) staying in third position. The Haval H6 (+21%) is lifted up two ranks by the new generation to #4 ahead of the VW Bora (+16%) while the Buick Excelle Yinlang (+21.6%) is up three spots to #6. The Honda CR-V (+6.5%), Toyota Levin (+12.2%) and Honda Civic (-6.8%) all break into the 2020 Top 10 while the Changan CS75 Plus (+285.3%) ends its first full year of sales at #12 and the Tesla Model 3 does the same at #37. The Wuling Hongguang MINI EV (#49) is the most successful retail launch for 2020, followed by the Changan CS55 Plus (#54), Changan UNI-T (#86) and Toyota Wildlander (#93).

Previous year: China retail 2019: Honda (+16.6%), BMW (+21.6%) stand out in market holding better than wholesales (-4%)

Two years ago: China retail 2018: Toyota shines, VW Lavida, Nissan Sylphy and Toyota Corolla best-sellers

Full Year 2020 Top 138 All-brands and Top 915 All-models below.

Full September, October, November and December Top 121 All-brands and Top 805 All-models below.