China retail September 2021: Tesla Model Y up to #4, sales down -14.1%

Outstanding back-loaded end-of-quarter month for the Tesla Model Y. 

BSCB is the only non-Chinese medium to cover both wholesales (ex-factory shipments) and retail sales (end-customer sales) for China so you can get the most complete picture of the largest new vehicle market in the world. Retail sales tend to give a more accurate picture of the market as they roughly correspond to purchases 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 which extends to some LCVs such as microvans is down -14.1% year-on-year to 1.636.996 units, with a year-to-date volume up 16.1% to 14.740.205

Volkswagen continues to see its volume tumble down: after -32.7% in August, it loses another -32.2% this month but remains over 50.000 units ahead of the #2. Solid results by the Teramont (+79.9%), Passat (+18.6%), CC (+16.7%), Phideon (+11.1%), Polo (+0.6%) as well as the gearing up of the ID.4 Crozz, ID.4 X and Talagon can’t offset nasty falls by the T-Roc (-67.4%), Sagitar (-65.3%), Golf (-64.8%), Magotan (-56%), Bora (-52.5%), Tayron (-50.8%) and Santana (-45.6%). In fact the top 3 carmakers all fall faster than the market, with Honda (-25.9%) snapping the 2nd spot off Toyota (-39.8%). Honda is helped by the Fit (+50.6%), Envix (+21%) and Odyssey (+2.7%) but penalised by the Avancier (-86.9%), Crider (-60.5%), Civic (-52.5%) and CR-V (-48.4%). For its part Toyota only has the Vios FS (+1.6%) showing a positive result, with the Yaris L Sedan (-65.6%), Corolla (-63.3%), Levin (-51.8%) and C-HR (-50.6%) all crumbling down.

The new generation Emgrand helps Geely up 3% this month.

The only year-on-year gainers in the Top 10 are Chinese. Geely (+3%) remains the most popular domestic brand, overtaking Nissan (-28.1%) to take 4th place overall. It is propelled up by the Emgrand (+55.2%), Binyue (+3.5%) and new Xingrui and Xingyue L. Wuling (+41.2%) is on a roll thanks to the Hongguang MINI EV (+157.9%), Victory (+769.1%) and new Journey. Once again BYD (+113.2%) is the hero in the Top 10, benefitting from stellar scores by the Song Plus (+1358.5%), Yuan (+386.2%), Han (+129.3%), Tang (+77.8%), e2 (+40%) and the new Qin Plus (record 17.867). Changan (-25.9%), Buick (-32.6%) and Haval (-15.2%) all underperform to close the Top 10. Tesla (+378.3%) is up almost 5-fold year-on-year and leaps up 40 spots on August to #11 with a record 52.045 retail sales for the month. Other gainers in the remainder of the Top 30 include COS (+101.5%), Dongfeng (+36.6%), MG (+42.2%), Chery (+34.6%), Jetta (+16.9%), Hongqi (+13.5%), GAC (+9.4%) and Beijing (+6.4%). Like in the wholesales charts, both NIO (+118.1%) and Xpeng (+196.1%) cross the symbolic 10.000 monthly sales milestone for the first time this month.

Looking at the models ranking in isolation, the Nissan Sylphy (-27.1%) holds onto the top spot despite a glaring year-on-year loss, while the Wuling Hongguang MINI EV (+157.9%) breaks its volume record just above 38.000 units and advances to 2nd place overall. The VW Lavida (-24.3%) is knocked down to #3 as a result. Faithful to intense backloading of sales, the Tesla Model Y is up 224 spots on last month to land at #4, becoming the country’s best-selling SUV above the Haval H6 (-21.8%). The Tesla Model 3 (+74.8%) is up 245 ranks on August to #6 just as the Geely Emgrand (+55.2%) continues to benefit from its new generation while the BYD Qin Plus is down two ranks to #8. 

Previous month: China retail August 2021: BYD smiles (+123.7%), VW cries (-32.7%), sales off -10.9%

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

Full September 2021 Top 130 All-brands and Top 542 All-models below.