Axon's Automotive Anorak: The world's best‑selling car you've never heard of

The Wuling what, I hear you cry! Wuling is the utilitarian brand within the huge Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), the owners of the MG marque, as well as Rover (renamed Roewe), Maxus (ex-LDV commercial vehicles) and Baojun. Confusingly, SAIC itself is part-owned by the Chinese Government, as well as Volkswagen and General Motors, with this giant automotive group also assembling Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac models for the local Chinese domestic market.

In 2016, a staggering 650,000+ Hong Guang people carriers were sold in China by Wuling, comfortably more than the total Belgian new car market last year, for example, or Toyota’s overall sales in the whole of Europe in 2016.

If the large American Ford F-Series, Chevrolet Silverado and Dodge RAM pick-up trucks are excluded (these being commercial vehicles, not passenger cars), Chinese-built cars now occupy the top three positions for the best-selling passenger vehicles in the world, with the Hong Guang being trailed by the Haval H6 (580,683 sales in China) and the Volkswagen Lavida (a China-only traditional three-box saloon, based around the second-generation Skoda Octavia, and selling 550,000 units last year).

The world’s fourth best-seller last year in a geographical new car market group was the Volkswagen Golf, with 492,952 examples sold in the total European market (a decline of seven per cent against the previous year, due partially to the negative back-lash of VW’s ‘Diesel Gate’ scandal), followed by the Toyota Camry in the USA (388,616 sold) with the Honda Civic in sixth place (366,927 sold in the USA), Toyota Corolla (360,483 in the USA), Honda CR-V (357,335), Toyota RAV4 in ninth position (345,225) and the Nissan Rogue in tenth place (with 329,904 sold in the USA).

So, what is the Wuling Hong Guang?  Well, this anonymous high-sided compact MPV has been China’s best-selling car for the past four years, with over 3million examples of the vehicle built since launch. Powered by a family of small-capacity petrol engines (ranging from 84 bhp 1.2-litre to 110 bhp 1.5-litre) powering the rear wheels, this Hong Guang is available with up to eight seats, with prices starting at around £5,300!  That’s little money for a lot of seats.

This best-seller is also built and sold in India as the Chevrolet Enjoy (somewhat misnamed) as well as Indonesia, where it is known as the Wuling Confero S. Unlike SAIC’s MG and Maxus-LDV marques that are now available in the UK, it is highly unlikely that we will ever see Wuling and its hugely popular Hong Guang offered for sale in European export markets. This is an enormous relief, as you never know, like Shaddup You Face, it could just prove to be a best-selling irritation.