FAW VW leads top 10 carmakers in '08 PV sales

Shanghai, January 9 (Gasgoo.com) FAW VW, Shanghai VW and Shanghai GM grabbed the first three places in China's top ten carmakers in 2008 passenger vehicle sales, according to the latest data from China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), said 21cn.com today.

The top ten carmakers in China in terms of vehicle sales in 2008 are (from the biggest sales) FAW VW, Shanghai VW, Shanghai GM, FAW Toyota, Chery, Dongfeng Nissan, GAC Honda (Guangzhou Honda), Beijing Hyundai, Geely, and Changan Ford.

The sales of VW's two Chinese ventures (as the champion and runner-up) were each near to 500,000 units last year. In the most competitive mid- and high-end sedan segment, GAC Honda's New Accord was the sedan model that had the biggest wholesales of 170,517 units in 2008.

In the license registration, GAC Toyota's Camry had 147,000 registered in 2008 to become a sedan model that got the most license plates last year.

While most of these carmakers had not fulfilled their full-year sales targets amid the financial crisis, only Dongfeng Nissan and Dongfeng Honda had scored an extraordinary victory and met the year's sales goals in 2008.

The following are the top 10 Chinese automakers' passenger vehicle sales volumes (units registered for licenses) in 2008: 

1. FAW VW:                  498,867 units
2. Shanghai VW:         490,087 units
3. Shanghai GM:         468,642 units
4. FAW Toyota:            365,699 units
5. Chery:                       356,092 units
6. Dongfeng Nissan: 350,621 units
7. GAC Honda:            305,997 units
8. Beijing Hyundai:     294,517 units
9. Geely:                       230,420 units
10. Changan Ford:     202,797 units