English: Place: Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County, Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Chinese name: 五菱宏光S1 (wǔlíng hóngguāng S1) Year of launch: 2015

Wuling is the best-selling brand of commercial vans and cheap MPVs on the Chinese market and is owned by the joint-venture SAIC-GM. Wuling has its headquarters in Liuzhou, Guangxi, the province (region) where I spent most of my time. These type of cars are especially popular in rural areas. Wuling's first car was a Citroën Visa made of glass fibre, but in 1982 Wuling launched LZ110 based on the Mitsubishi Minicab (L100). Wuling launched the Dragon in 1990, based on the newer Mitsubishi Minicab. The Hongguang was Wuling's first car to be classified as a passenger car (from 2013) and was launched in 2010. It's a huge success, selling 530,050 units in 2013, 750,019 in 2014, 655,531 in 2015 and 650,018 in 2016.

The S1 is the most upmarket MPV out of the Wuling Hongguang range, even though new SUV-ish Hongguangs will be launched soon.

Sales figures: carsalesbase.com/china-car-sales-data/wuling/wuling-hongg...