China wholesales January 2024: VW back above BYD, Changan CS75 Plus #1, AITO M7 #5

The AITO M7 sells almost 30,000 units in January alone.

The Chinese wholesales market has a particularly low year-ago base in January when sales were impacted by the early start of the Lunar New Year, a Covid surge and the end of some major incentives. In 2024 the Lunar new year starts mid-February. This means shipments are up significantly – but artificially – in January this year at +47.9% to 2,439,000 units. Passenger Cars are up 44% to 2,115,000 and Commercial Vehicles up 79.6%v to 324,000. Production is up 52.1% to 2,410,000 including 2,083,000 Passenger Vehicles (+49.1%) and 327,000 Commercial Vehicles (+66.2%). Domestic sales of Passenger Vehicles are up 43.3% to 1,746,000 while exports climb 47.5% to 369,000. New Energy Vehicles (BEV+PHEV) shipments soar 78.8% year-on-year to 729,000, divided into 629,000 domestic sales (+93.3%) and 101,000 exports (+21.7%).

We have a significant event atop the brands ranking: for the first time in a year (since January 2022), Volkswagen (+41.5%) reclaims the pole position off BYD (+43.4%), as both manufacturers trail the market. The German brand is helped by stunning lifts from the ID.4 Crozz (+580.8%), Lavender (+398.2%), ID.3 (+371.3%), Viloran (+317.7%), Talagon (+163.1%) CC (+160.7%), T-Cross (+150.6%) and Passat (+120.3%). For its part BYD is pushed up by the Qin Plus (+152.3%), e6 (+57.6%) and Song Pro (+41.3%) but mainly owes its positive performance to the new Seagull (over 28,000 sales) and Song L (7,374). In third place, Toyota (+35.1%) is also relatively weak, with the Granvia (+190.2%), Corolla Cross (+145.3%), Front Lander (+134.7%), RAV4 (+126.1%), Highlander (+50.1%) and Avalon (+48.9%) standing out.

The Changan CS75 Plus is the best-selling vehicle in China in January.

Geely (+100.3%) climbs three spots on December to rank #4 overall for the 2nd time in the past 3 months. The Xingrui (+143.9%) and Xingyue L (+128.3%) help boost the company’s sales but the main element is the success of the new Galaxy series, with its three models totalling 19,219 sales. Changan (+44.4%) is also up three ranks on last month to #5, followed by Honda (+102.6%) and BMW (+21.3%). Chery (+163.3%) manages the largest year-on-year uptick in the Top 18, shooting up to #8, its best ranking at home since July 2022 (#6). Wuling (+45.5%) and Nissan (+43.5%) round out the Top 10 and both trail the market slightly. Below, Hongqi (+82.8%) ascends to a record 14th place with COS (+73%) and Li Auto (+105.8%) also delivering excellent results. Jetour (+188.6%) and AITO (+590.4%) both break their all-time volume record at over 30,000 units each. TANK (+199.6%) breaks its all time volume record at 17,364 while Lynk & Co (+153.1%) and Aion (+114.9%) make themselves noticed.

Looking at the models ranking in isolation, we have a surprise leader: the Changan CS75 Plus (+91.9%) surges 20 spots on December to score its second ever monthly win after February 2021 and its 2nd highest monthly volume below January 2021 at 41,486 vs. 42,171. The VW Lavida (+20.4%) climbs back up to 2nd place and outsells all BYD models for once. The BYD Song Plus (-9.3%) struggles but manages to stay at #3, distancing the Nissan Sylphy (+29.3%). Another surprise is the 5th position of the AITO M7 (+1626.9%), smashing its all-time volume record for the 5th straight month at just under 30,000 sales. AITO is a brand by Huawei and Seres. The Tesla Model Y (+110.9%) falls to #6 ahead of the BYD Qin Plus (+152.3%) and Honda CR-V (+267.6%) while the new BYD Seagull drops four ranks on last month to #9.

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One year ago: China wholesales January 2023: Market sinks -35% on Covid surge, end of incentives and calendar quirk

Full January 2024 Top 92 All brands and Top 528 All models below.