Summary: Best-selling Chinese passenger automobile models in 2016

With Chinese New Year on its way, statistics for Chinese passenger car sales in the year of 2016 have all been finalized. Gasgoo.com (Chinese) has compiled statistics gathered by the China Passenger Car Association. According to the figures, around 510 new vehicles were sold in the country last year. 

Just over 23.59 million passenger automobiles were sold in China in 2016, a 19.4% increase from the 19.77 million automobiles sold in 2015. 2.59 million of those sales were made in the month of December. Monthly sales in December grew 9.4% year-on-year, far less than the double digit growth rates recorded in previous months.

The SAIC-GM-Wuling Hongguang continued to be the best selling vehicle in China by a wide margin, with its annual sales just over the 650,000 unit mark. Over 82,000 Hongguang MPVs were sold in December alone.

Ranking after the Hongguang was Great Wall’s Haval H6, which managed to accumulated nearly 581,000 sales over the course of the year, a figure which represents outstanding year-on-year growth of 55.6%. In the month of December alone, the H6’s sales totaled 80,495 units. Behind the H6 was the Shanghai VW Lavida, annual sales of which totaled 479,000 units, a figure representing 26.3% sales growth year-on-year.

Shanghai GM’s Buick Excelle, the SAIC-GM-Wuling Baojun 730, Dongfeng Nissan Bluebird Sylphy, FAW-VW Jetta, FAW-VW Sagitar, GAC Trumpchi GS4 and SAIC-GM-Wuling Baojun 560 rounded out the top ten, each of which managed to sell at least 300,000 units over the course of the year. In all, a total of five own brand models made the top ten, all of which were SUVs and MPVs. 

Among the vehicles available on the market this year, around 292 were sedans. A total of 12.11 million sedans were sold in the country in 2016, representing year-on-year growth of 3.8%. Despite leading the charts with total sales of 479,000 units, sales of the VW Lavida actually fell 5.4% in December. Next in line were the Buick Excelle and Nissan Bluebird Sylphy, whose annual sales totaled 370,000 units and 368,000 units, respectively. Behind them were the Jetta, Sagitar, Corolla, Focus, New Santana, Elantra (Langdong) and Geely’s Emgrand EC7.

As the year’s most successful own brand sedan, the Emgrand EC7 managed to accumulate a total of 224,000 sales annually, with 22,516 sales made in the month of December alone. The other own brand sedans which managed to sell over 100,000 units over the course of the year were the Changan Eado (156,000 annual sales), Geely Vision (138,000) and Chery Arrizo 5 (129,000), which managed to put in an exceptional performance despite being on the market for less than a year.

Around 164 SUV models were available for sale last year. SUV sales for the year totaled 9.02 million units, growing a vast 47.1% from the previous year. The Haval H6 led the sales charts by a comfortable margin, with its sales in December growing an impressive 89.2%, totaling 581,000 units alone. The GAC Trumpchi GS4 and SAIC-GM-Wuling Baojun 560 ranked second and third, with their annual sales totaling 327,000 units and 321 units, respectively. Both vehicles managed to post annual sales growth rates in the triple digits. The fourth to tenth top selling SUVs of the year were the Buick Envision, VW Tiguan, Changan CS75, JAC Refine S3, Great Wall Haval H2, Honda CR-V and Nissan X-Trail. Annual sales of the top ten SUVs combined exceeded 180,000 units, with six of the top ten models coming from own brand manufacturers.

MPV sales in 2016 totaled 2.47 million units, a figure representing year-on-year growth of 25.8%. Despite once again dominating the segment’s sales charts, the Hongguang saw competition from other MPV models such as the Baojun 730, which led to its sales slightly decreasing by 0.8%. Still sales of the Hongguang in December alone totaled 82,543 units, making it that month’s top selling passenger automobile model in the country. Ranking behind the Hongguang were the Baojun 730, Changan Honor, BAIC Weiwang M30, Changan Oushang and BAIC Huansu H3. Nine of the top ten best selling MPV models were from own brands, with the most successful foreign brand model, the Buick GL8, ranking in ninth place with total annual sales of 80,000 units.