Urumqi street scene (Click on any image to enlarge) After Beijing and Chongqing, we now travel to Ürümqi in the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region at the extreme West of China. As described in my previous article The cars of Chongqing - Central China, the Chinese hinterland is going to absorb most…
The Siena was Fiat's best-seller in Uruguay in 2013. * See the Top 45 All-brands ranking by clicking on the title! Thanks Leandro * New car sales in Uruguay are stable in March to an estimated 4,151 registrations, bringing the First Quarter total to 12,977 units, up 5% on 2013…
Dongfeng Number 1 Concept This is it: the top of the crop, the utmost impressive Chinese carmakers at the Beijing Auto Show. It doesn’t get better than this. Would you have guessed them? This is Part 8 of my Beijing Auto Show coverage, check out also Part 1- First impressions, Part 2 – Most…
Chana Star in Dongsi hutong The legendary Beijing hutongs are tiny, charming alleyways formed by lines of traditional courtyard residences. An endangered species, the real Beijing lives and breathes in hutongs where a warm sense of community and hospitality survives. I was lucky enough to spend some time visiting hutongs during…
Remember when Auto Shows were fun and carmakers didn't take themselves too seriously? Today was the Press Day of Auto China 2014 in Beijing, the biggest annual Chinese Auto Show alternatively hosted in Shanghai and Beijing. My first striking impression is that even though China is now by far the…
The Wuling Hongguang launched this month in India as the Chevrolet Enjoy. * This is Part 4 of 5 in my series on Chinese carmakers abroad. See also Part 1 (Africa), Part 2 (Latin America), Part 3 (Eastern Europe) and Part 5 (Mature markets) * In the first 3 parts of this series we observed that…
Brazilian Chery QQ * This is Part 2 of 5 in my series on Chinese carmakers abroad. See also Part 1 (Africa), Part 3 (Eastern Europe), Part 4 (Asia) and Part 5 (Mature markets) * If Chinese carmakers have started exporting to Africa in the early 00′s, they set foot in Latin America even earlier, with JAC starting…
Haval H6 Sport * See the Top 67 All-brands and Top 334 All-models by clicking on the title! * As is the tradition on BSCB, after looking into March data in detail we now go on to study the year-to-date rankings to extract some longer-term trends. The Chinese Passenger Car…
Dodge Forza * See the Top 30 All-models and Top 10 All-brands by clicking on the title! * Due to the current political trouble that is plaguing the country, new car sales in Venezuela are still running on an empty tank, down 86% year-on-year in March to just 1,674 registrations…
Wuling is one of 14 Chinese manufacturers in the Top 30. Much better with LCVs! * See the Top 30 best-selling brands by clicking on the title! * Similarly to India, just in time before March figures trickle down and thanks to LMC Automotive I can now share with you…
Sales of locally-produced Mercedes are up a huge 116% year-on-year in China in February. See the February 2014 Top 66 All-brands ranking here See the 2 months 2014 Top 67 All-brands ranking here Finally today I can share with you a complete brands ranking for China for both February and…
Hyundai sold over 1 million units in China for the first time in 2013. * See the Top 70 best-selling brands here! * Thanks to Renato, Alexandra and IHS I can now share you the most popular brands of passenger cars in China for the Full Year 2013! A reminder…
Toyota holds one third of the Thai new vehicle market in 2013. * NOW UPDATED with the Top 70 models and Top 38 All-brands. Thanks Aero & Falkonz * After hitting a record 1.44 million registrations in 2012, new vehicle sales in Thailand are down 8% year-on-year in 2013 to 1,324,722…
Buick Excelle GT * See the Top 323 All-models and Top 67 All-brands by clicking on the title! * After exploring in detail Chinese February sales figures it is now time to look at the year-to-date ranking to extract longer term trends. First observation is the podium is unchanged year-on-year, with…
VW Santana * NOW UPDATED with the Top 309 All-models and Top 66 All-brands rankings! * The Chinese market is up an insolent 18% year-on-year in February to 1.6 million units, brushing off all suggestions that it may slow down in 2014… Below the traditional Wuling Hongguang (65,129 sales), VW…