How to read a Chinese VIN
Every car built for the Chinese market has a 17-character VIN. Knowing how to read it helps you spot mismatched documents before you import.
Where to find the VIN
On the dashboard behind the lower left of the windscreen, on the label inside the driver's door pillar, stamped on the body, and on the Chinese registration certificate and vehicle licence. All of them must match.
First three characters: the manufacturer
Characters 1–3 (the WMI) identify the maker. Cars built in mainland China start with L — for example LGX (BYD), LRW (Tesla Shanghai), LGW (Great Wall: Haval, Tank), LS5 (Changan) and LVV (Chery).
Characters 4–10: model and year
Characters 4–8 describe the model, body and engine, character 9 is a check digit and character 10 is the model year: M = 2021, N = 2022, P = 2023, R = 2024, S = 2025.
What a decoder cannot tell you
Decoding only tells you what the car is, not what happened to it. Taxi use, ownership changes and insurance claims are kept in Chinese registries — that is what our VIN history report checks.