Best-selling passenger car models in China by year
Facts checked Newest figure published 20 January 2025
2024
| Rank | Name | vehicles (retail) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tesla Model Y | 480,309 | Tesla — SUV, built at Tesla Shanghai. Up 5.2% on 2023. |
| 2 | BYD Qin Plus | 480,025 | BYD — sedan; the best-selling sedan of the year, 284 units behind the Model Y overall. |
| 3 | BYD Seagull | 453,593 | BYD — small hatchback, sold abroad as the Dolphin Mini or Dolphin Surf. First full year in the top ten. |
| 4 | BYD Song Plus | 418,474 | BYD — SUV, sold abroad as the Seal U. |
| 5 | Nissan Sylphy | 342,395 | Nissan — sedan, built by the Dongfeng Nissan joint venture. |
| 6 | Volkswagen Lavida | 322,933 | Volkswagen — sedan, built by SAIC-Volkswagen for the Chinese market only. |
| 7 | BYD Yuan Plus | 275,223 | BYD — SUV, sold abroad as the Atto 3. |
| 8 | Wuling Hongguang Mini EV | 261,141 | Wuling — micro battery-electric car, built by SAIC-GM-Wuling. |
| 9 | Volkswagen Passat | 246,007 | Volkswagen — sedan, built by SAIC-Volkswagen. |
| 10 | BYD Song Pro | 241,598 | BYD — SUV. The next model, the Volkswagen Sagitar, was 471 units behind on 241,127. |
Reading these figures
Two published series for the same year often disagree, and the reason is almost always the definition rather than an error: wholesale shipments are not retail registrations, passenger cars are not all vehicles, and what counts as a new-energy vehicle differs between publishers. The definition above is the one that applies to every number on this page.
Related
Sources for Best-selling passenger car models in China by year
- CarNewsChina, 2024 best-selling sedan, SUV, and MPV ranking in China. Read . Published 2025-01-20. Reproduces CPCA's full-year 2024 retail rankings as three top-twenty tables, one each for sedans, SUVs and MPVs. The combined top ten above is the merge of those three tables: it is complete, because the tenth value (241,598) is above the lowest value in every one of the three tables (sedan 153,348, SUV 140,627, MPV 14,675), so no model outside them can belong in the top ten.
- CnEVPost, Model Y sells 480,309 units in China in 2024, 26.84% of Tesla's global deliveries. Read . Published 2025-01-10. Confirms 480,309 as the Model Y's 2024 CPCA retail figure in China, against 456,394 in 2023, and so confirms the basis of the merged table.
- Best Selling Cars Blog, China retail Full Year 2023: BYD and Tesla Model Y on top. Read . Published 2024-01-25. Gives CPCA's 2023 retail top ten in order — Tesla Model Y, BYD Qin Plus, Nissan Sylphy, BYD Song Plus, Volkswagen Lavida, BYD Dolphin, Volkswagen Sagitar, BYD Yuan Plus, Wuling Hongguang Mini EV — but the unit figures behind the ranking are subscriber-only, so 2023 is not carried in the series.
- CarNewsChina, 2025 best-selling SUV ranking in China, no BYD model in top 5, Tesla Model Y took lead. Read . Published 2026-01-19. CPCA's full-year 2025 SUV retail ranking (Tesla Model Y 425,337; Geely Xingyue L 244,068; Geely Boyue L 232,926). No matching full-year sedan table was found, so 2025 could not be merged into a complete top ten and is omitted.