China retail February 2022: Wuling (+25.8%), BYD (+192.9%) can’t prevent market down a surprising -9%

The Wuling Hongguang Mini EV is the best-selling vehicle in China in February.

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 idea of the market as they roughly correspond to registrations by end-customers and are more difficult to artificially boost with exports which can sometimes be the case for wholesales data. Unlike wholesales up a stellar 18.7%, the selection of vehicles included in this update is down -9% year-on-year in February to just 1,130,788 units, leading to a year-to-date tally down -5.7% to 3,311,655. It looks like the car dealerships are loading up on stock after a few months of shortage due to the microchip crisis. Note pickups and medium to heavy commercial vehicles are not included in this dataset, but it includes a more detailed split by model variant (Jetour X70, X70 Coupe, X70 Plus, X70M and X70S for example).

In the brands ranking, Volkswagen (-24.3%) once again falls much faster than the market. The German carmaker is handicapped by poor performances from the T-Cross (-55.2%), Tacqua (-55.2%), Bora (-50%), Phideon (-49.5%), Polo (-42.2%), Sagitar (-40.8%), Santana (-39.3%), Tayron (-36.9%), Magotan (-34.7%) and Tiguan (-34.6%), and despite strong lifts by the CC (+49%), Golf (+37.9%) and Teramont (+10.9%). The entire ID. range (5 models) adds up to 7,414 sales. Toyota (+8.9%) remains in 2nd place and is in great shape, reducing the gap with Volkswagen to less than 35,000 units vs. over 83,000 a year ago. It is pushed upwards by the Camry (+96.1%), Wildlander (+61.1%), Highlander (+23.5%) and promising  launches by the Crown Kluger (4,162), Sienna (3,843), Corolla Cross (2,871), Front Lander (2,608) and Harrier (2,408).

Honda (-0.9%) edges down to remain in third place overall, with the Fit (+56.9%), Inspire (+47.7%), Accord (+15.7%), Odyssey (+2.9%) and Life (+2.1%) in positive while the Integra (3,484) continues on its strong launch. Wuling (+25.8%) takes the lead of domestic manufacturers thanks to the Hongguang Mini EV (+53.3%), Rongguang (+66.4%), Hongguang V (+23%) and Sunshine (+13%) while the new Xingchen/Asta is strong at 6,966 sales. BYD (+192.9%) almost triples its sales year-on-year and is up four spots on January to #5, knocking Geely (-30.5%) down to #6. Nissan (-23.5%) and Changan (-31.3%) also suffer while Audi (-4.1%) limits its fall to the single digits and Haval (-35.5%) is in great difficulty to round the Top 10. In order of sales, Chery (+10.3%), GAC (+26.1%), Tesla (+34.1%), Roewe (+23.5%) and Hongqi (+9.9%) also secure upticks in the remainder of the Top 20. Below, Jetta (+30.3%), LI (+265.3%), Ora (+18.8%), Neta (+818.6%), Xpeng (+162.6%), Geometry (+914.7%), Leap Motor (+495%) and Weltmeister (+309.8%) make themselves noticed.

Over in the models ranking, whereas it is down to #9 in the wholesales ranking, the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV (+53.3%) takes the lead for the third time in the past 5 months, knocking down the VW Lavida (-19.4%) and Nissan Sylphy (-10.5%). The Tesla Model Y (+310.6%) confirms like in the wholesales ranking that it is now the best-selling SUV in the country at #4 overall but without exports this time, while the BYD Qin Plus is up 30 spots on January to #5 overall and best-selling recent launch. The BYD Song Plus (+527.3%) is up 23 ranks to #6 and the Wuling Hongguang (-5.8%) rises 13 spots to #7. The Haval H6 (-36.8%) has a horrendous month and drops to #3 SUV, just above the Honda CR-V (-5.4%) resisting much better. The Toyota Corolla (-42.3%) continues to suffer and rounds out the Top 10. 

Previous month: China retail January 2022: BMW, Hongqi, Jetta break records in market down -3.9%

Previous year: China retail Full Year 2021: Wuling, BYD show explosive growth in market up 6.4%

Full February 2022 Top 120 All-brands and Top 630 All-models below.