SUVs Remain China's Best-Sellers

We do know that China is one of the largest auto markets in the world and that's basically the main reason why carmakers are all trying to increase their business in the country. But, contrary to other markets were small cars and hybrids are among the most appealing vehicles to customers, China sells SUVs. In fact, most of the cars sold in the country are SUVs, according to some stats posted by CNTV.cn, as sales of this type of vehicle exceeded the 1 million barrier in the January - October period this year.

This means that SUV sales have more than doubled in the first 10 months of 2010, as compared to the same period of the last year. Furthermore, SUVs account for almost 50 percent of the imported models sold in China between January and August, with dealership stats emphasizing that more buyers are asking for SUVs when visiting the showrooms.

But this isn't surprising at all for some of the people involved in the Chinese auto industry. Dongfeng Honda vice manager Liu Hong said in an interview with Shenzhen Economic Daily back in October that he expects SUV sales to exceed 1.5 million in 2011.

In 2009, the SUV segment accounted for sales of 730,000 units, while this year's figures are expected to go way over the 1 million unit milestone, with the 1.5 million unit goal to be achieved next year.

Honda CR-V remains the best selling SUV in China, with a total of 102,013 units delivered in the fist nine months of 2010, which is a lot better than in 2009, when the Japanese manufacturer delivered approximately 100,000 units of the CR-V range the whole year.