China imports Full Year 2022: Lexus and ES dominate again, Porsche up 1.3% in market freefalling -19%

Porsche is the only year-on-year gainer among the Top 15 brands.

Discover 40 years worth of Chinese Historical Data here.

As more models shift towards local production (for example the BMW X5 this year), new car imports into China continue to shrink in 2022 at a drastic -19% year-on-year to just 757,331 units, that’s 178,000 units less than in 2021. Lexus (-16.8%) stays in the lead but sees its advantage on Mercedes (-8.3%) halve from 46,700 units in 2021 to 24,300 now. BMW (-34.3%) is in freefall as it loses the X5, while Porsche (+1.3%) goes against the market with the only year-on-year gain in the Top 15. In a Top 12 unchanged on 2021, Toyota (-4.4%), Mini (-6.2%), Land Rover (-11%) and Jeep (-16%) increase their footprint whereas Audi (-43.5%), Subaru (-31.2%) and Volkswagen (-29.4%) implode.

Model-wise, the Lexus ES (-7%) continues to dominate the charts head and shoulders, once again selling more than double any other imported nameplate in the country as it falls slower than the market. In fact the Top 5 models outpace the market: the Lexus RX (-8.4%) and Mercedes GLE (-9.9%) are both up one spot on 2021 to #2 and #3 respectively, the Porsche Cayenne (+18.7%) posts a splendid, market defying surge and gains two ranks to #4 while the Mercedes S-Class (+9.5%) is also up and leaps four spots to #5. The Porsche Panamera (+28.1%) and Mercedes GLS (+24.3%) score the largest year-on-year upticks in the Top 10. Further down, notice the BMW 4 Series (+59.2%), Land Rover Defender (+36.6%) and Mercedes Maybach S-Class (+39.1%) all euphoric.

Previous year: China imports 2020: Lexus places ES, RX and NX in Top 4 again in market down -12.3%

Two years ago: China imports 2021: Lexus ES and BMW X5 top market down -6.9%

Full Year 2022 Top 37 all brands and Top XXX all models vs. Full Year 2021 figures below.

Full December 2022 Top 35 all brands and Top 150 all models below.