January 2026 SUV Sales and Complaints Rankings: Japanese and German Brands Surge, Quality Issues Emerge

In January 2026, domestic SUV retail sales totaled 843,000 units, down 28.4% month-over-month and 5.2% year-over-year. During the same period, there were 6,340 valid consumer complaints—down 12.5% month-over-month but up 17.3% year-over-year. Japanese and German brands saw their market shares rise by 5.9 and 6 percentage points, respectively, while American brands fell to single-digit market share. Large SUVs posted a counter-trend surge of 46.2%, whereas small SUV sales plummeted by 41.5%. Geely’s Xingyue L and Boyue L doubled their sales volumes, while Tesla Model Y sales plunged by 74.4%. Quality-related complaints rose 15% month-over-month, with “body rust” emerging as a new hotspot; issues with infotainment systems and transmissions remained prevalent. Complaints about the Xiaomi YU7 doubled, and those concerning the Changan X5 PLUS surged by 500%. Twenty-three models outperformed the industry average complaint-to-sales ratio (41.7 per 10,000 units), nearly 70% of which were fuel-powered vehicles.