China wholesales January 2022: VW back in positive, Changan, BMW and Hongqi break records in stable market (+0.9%)

Hongqi breaks its all-time volume record for the third time in the past 4 months.

According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), new vehicle sales in China edge up 0.9% year-on-year in January to 2,531,000 units. This includes 2,186,000 Passenger Vehicles (+6.7%) and 344,000 Commercial Vehicles (-25%). In the Passenger Vehicle detail, SUVs are up 8.7% to 1,057,000, cars are up 4.1% to 1,018,000, MPVs drop -1.4% to 81,000 and minibuses soar 78% to 30,000. Domestic Passenger Vehicle brands continue their offensive with a 15.9% year-on-year uptick to 1,004,000 units leading them to 45.9% share vs. 42.2% in January 2021. Looking at Commercial Vehicles in detail, note the Mini Truck segment up 64.7% year-on-year to 47,000 sales. New Energy Passenger Vehicle sales are up 138.7% too 419,000 or 19.2% of the PV market, including 335,000 BEVs (+127.3%) and 85,000 PHEVs (+198.3%).

Volkswagen is back in positive for the first time in almost a year.

Now onto the wholesales brands ranking still dominated by Volkswagen (+10.6%) which posts its first year-on-year gain since March 2021, and a double-digit one at that. The German brand is helped by particularly low year-ago volumes and therefore surreal year-on-year gains by the Touran (+9525%), Viloran (+3879.4%), Lamando (+3097.7%), Passat (+646.4%), Tharu (+319.5%), Tiguan L (+162.1%), T-Roc (+147.6%), CC (+134.3%), Teramont (+110.7%) and Tacqua (+90.9%), as well as solid scores by the Golf (+50%), T-Cross (+43.9%) and Polo (+27%). Honda (+4.2%) is also in positive and overtakes Toyota (-12.1%) for the 2nd place. Honda is boosted by the Crider (+125.6%), Elysion (+119.2%), Fit (+105.3%), Inspire (+102.2%) and Civic (+18.4%) as well as the new Integra (record 9,215 sales). In contrast, Toyota is hampered by poor performances by the IZOA (-86.5%), Yaris L Sedan (-65.7%) ,Corolla (-64.7%), Vios FS (-63.4%), Vios (-56.9%), C-HR (-39.3%), Levin (-32.8%) and RAV4 (-27.5%). A strong showing by the Camry (+39.9%) and the launch of the Sienna (record 5,399), Harrier, Corolla Cross and its win the Front Lander can’t compensate these losses. 

Changan also breaks its all-time volume record in January…

In 4th place and leading all domestic brands in Changan, edging up 1.8% to break the monthly volume record it hit just one year ago, lifting it to a little over 130,000 units. The Benben (+204.1%), CS55 (+135.6%), CS15 (+46.2%) and CS95 (+32.9%) all contributed towards this stellar performance. Geely (-11.1%) is toppled from its traditional #1 domestic brand spot as the Binyue (+6%) and new Xingyue L (11,492), Emgrand L (4,207) and Emgrand S (6,302) can’t prevent a negative score. Nissan (-3%) follows in 6th place above BYD (+126.1%) more than doubling its sales year-on-year thanks to the new Dolphin (10,602), Qin PLUS (+23990%), Yuan (+1237.9%), Tang (+255.2%), e2 (+235.1%) and e3 (+189.9%). BMW (+8.4%) breaks its all-time monthly volume record to just above 79,000 sales thanks to the iX3 (+47.8%), X3 (+32.9%) and 5 Series L (+24.5%). Haval (-25.7%) is in difficulty at #9 as its star model the H6 drops -23.3% and despite the new Shenshou already surpassing 10,000 monthly wholesales. Chery (+30.9%) rounds out the Top 10 in solid fashion thanks partly to the new QQ Ice Cream ending the month just below 10,000 sales.

…as does BMW…

Beyond the Top 10, Tesla (+286.5%) shows explosive growth but keep in mind its wholesales figure includes exports. Dongfeng (+88%) is extremely strong at #15 with 11 of its 15 nameplates posting double-digit gains. Wuling (-1.3%) on the other hand drops 11 spots on its December ranking to #16 due to a catastrophic result by the Hongguang MPV (-73.9%). Hongqi (+29.6%) breaks its all-time volume record for the third time in the past 4 months to lift it above 42,000 units, with Venucia (+126.3%), Chevrolet (+29.3%), GAC (+26%), COS (+17%), Jetta (+16.3%) and Roewe (+13.1%) also growing dynamically in the remainder of the Top 30. Below, notice all-time records by EV brands Neta (11,009), Leap Motor (8,085) and Geometry (7,563) and the splendid performances of Skoda (+625%), Citroen (+262.4%), LI (+128.1%), Xpeng (+117.8%) and Exeed (+50.1%). The most popular recent brand launches are TANK (#38), Pocco (#53) and Zeekr (#54). Meanwhile Baojun (-21.2%) continues its race to the bottom and is now down to #34 vs. #26 in December and over the FY2021.

…and Neta.

As for the wholesales models ranking, the Nissan Sylphy (+5.5%) reclaims the top spot it held over the Full Year 2021 while the VW Lavida (+7.6%) is up four spots on December to #2. The Wuling Hongguang MINI EV (+0.8%) is toppled from its December top spot to #3 while the Haval H6 (-23.3%) is down one rank on last month to #4. The Changan CS75 rallies back 36 spots on December to #5, distancing the Tesla Model Y (+1929.1%) celebrating one year in market, the Changan CS55 (+135.6%), Toyota Camry (+39.9%) and Tesla Model 3 (+91.8%) while a poorly performing VW Sagitar (-28.7%) rounds out the Top 10. The Hongqi HS5 (+70.4%) breaks its volume record at just under 24,500 sales, with other record-breakers including the COS X5 (16,400), Hongqi H5 (13,137), Dongfeng Aeolus Hyun (10,434) and Venucia Grand V (6,310). 

Previous post: China wholesales Full Year 2021: Nissan Sylphy resists Wuling Hongguang MINI EV assault in market up 3.8%

One year ago: China wholesales January 2021: Market up 30%, Toyota, Changan, Audi, BMW and Mercedes break volume records

Full January 2022 Top 100 All-brands and Top 470 All-models below.