Who made the cut? January’s best-selling Chinese vehicles are…

Chery and GWM continued to lead the way, the former's Jetour and Omoda & Jaecoo sub-brands joining it in the top five.


South Africa’s new vehicle sales record run continued into January, with a 16th consecutive month of increases.

Still on the up

With an uptake of 7.5% year-on-year, the local industry started the year with a sales tally of more than 50 000 units on 50 073.

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By comparison, sales for the same time in 2024 amounted to 46 594.

Best-selling brands

A month where imported vehicles outranked locally assembled products six to four, no less than four Chinese brands featured in the top 15.

Last year’s best-selling vehicle, the Chery Tiggo 4, again featured in the top 10 at fifth, with arch rival Great Wall Motors (GWM) 10th with the Haval Jolion.

Since November, Chery-owned Jetour once again provided the biggest surprise, with an offset of 1 550 units, headed by the T2, which moved 665 examples.

Of the four mentioned brands, Wuhu accounted for three, as its Omoda & Jaecoo division finished 13th, with the C5 as its top-seller.

Admits the growing impact of Chinese vehicles, the best-selling marques for January were as follows

  1. Great Wall Motors – 2 521
  2. Chery – 2 258
  3. Jetour – 1 550
  4. Omoda & Jaecoo – 1 413
  5. MG – 458
  6. Foton – 428
  7. JAC – 270
  8. BAIC – 228
  9. Changan – 72
  10. Leapmotor – 6

NOTE: Excluded is truck brand, First Automotive Works (FAW). Also not ranked are BYD, Dongfeng, GAC, Geely, JMC and LDV, which don’t report figures to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa).

Top 20 best-sellers

January’s top 20 best-selling Chinese vehicles were as follows:

  1. Chery Tiggo 4 – 1 625
  2. GWM Haval Jolion – 1 172
  3. Omoda C5 – 907
  4. Jetour T2 – 665
  5. GWM P-Series – 461
  6. Jetour T1 – 431
  7. GWM Haval H6 – 408
  8. Chery Tiggo 7 – 399
  9. Jetour Dashing – 283
  10. Jaecoo J5 – 260
  11. GWM Tank 300 – 249
  12. JAC T-Series – 238
  13. Foton Tunland – 205
  14. MG ZS – 203
  15. Chery Tiggo 8 – 181
  16. GWM Steed – 172
  17. Jetour X70 Plus – 171
  18. BAIC B30 – 132
  19. MG HS – 119
  20. Jaecoo J7 – 107

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