Shanghai Auto Show 2013: the top 10 cars

China's most important car show for 2013 - Auto Shanghai - is a key date in every global carmaker's diary. This year, dozens of global unveils were revealed throughout the 17 halls of the show - from Maserati's sporty new four-door to Mercedes' compact SUV. Despite China's big-city traffic and pollution problems, the desire of the country's inhabitants to own a car (particularly telling by the massive crowds who flocked to the exhibition) is still huge.

Annual vehicle sales in this country with a population of about 1.2 billion people are set to hit an incredible 21 million by the end of 2013 - way ahead of any other world market, especially as luxury brands take an increasing slice of the pie. China is well on course to becoming the world's biggest luxury car market by 2018. It is already the second-most important sales region for Bentley and Ferrari, while Rolls-Royce's Beijing and Shanghai dealers rank as number one and three within its top five sales outlets.  

With a flat-lining European market, China is crucial to Western car brands' financial success and, as its customer buying tastes become increasingly sophisticated, massively influential in terms of what sorts of cars will be available in the rest of the world too. Local Chinese car brands may still be struggling to differentiate their products but Wallpaper* saw signs of strong local-branded concepts too, notably from Chery and Icona. Out of the hundreds of cars on view, here are our top 10 from this year's show.

Maserati Ghibli: Those with a penchant for classic Italian grand tourers from the late 1960s will be familiar with this evocative nameplate. Reborn at Shanghai in 2013 as an executive four-door sedan with coupe overtones, the production-ready Ghibli will directly target the Jaguar XF and Mercedes CLS. It will even offer a V6 diesel - the first Maserati in history to do so - as it attempts to help Maserati go from exotic bit-player (the marque only sold about 6200 cars in 2012), to a Porsche-style luxury big timer with 50,000 annual sales within five years

Mercedes Concept GLA: The Concept GLA previews Mercedes' answer to the Range Rover Evoque and Audi Q3, available in Spring 2014. The concept's bold but elegant form is due to become a production reality that will be almost untouched on the outside, as its British exterior designer, Mark Fetherston explains: 'The production car is almost one-to-one to this concept, you won't notice the difference.' Refreshing news then, but don't expect its more futuristic cabin with exposed aluminium structures and thick saddle leather to be tick-box options in a year's time

Porsche Panamera e-Hybrid: Alongside a convincing facelift that smoothes out some of the previous model's unsightly proportions, the new Panamera also gets an ingenious e-hybrid model, which showcases highly credible eco technology that will soon be available to buy. The plug-in hybrid's 91mpg and 71g/km CO2 figures easily trump the old S Hybrid's 41.5mpg and 159g/km and the diesel's 44.8mpg and 166g/km. Despite this, the e-hybrid can still muster 416hp, 0-62mph in 5.5 seconds and 22 miles in electric-only mode. Available this Autumn, circa £95k

Audi A3 saloon: Audi's answer to Mercedes' new CLA, this four-door compact coupe-like saloon will go on sale later this year at a similar price range of £20k-35k. Another perfectly proportioned vehicle, with no obvious flaws other than its over-similarity to other perfectly-proportioned Audis in the marque's ever-expanding range

Icona Vulcano: The Icona Vulcano was a local surprise, its brilliant supercar style and know-how created by the Shanghai-based, Italian design and engineering business Icona. Drawing on expertise that includes a former Ferrari  F1 engineer and an ex-Jaguar Land Rover designer, it is beautifully proportioned and has two engine options: a rear-wheel drive 950hp V12 hybrid capable of 0-62mph in 3.0 seconds as well as 12 miles in full electric mode, or a quicker four-wheel drive 870hp V6 with two electric motors for a 2.9-second 0-62mph and 217mph top speed. Icona says the Vulcano is a one-off, but if you have the million-plus pounds required, the firm promises not to build more than five to keep things exclusive

BMW X4 Concept: Flush from the sales success of its rakish X6 'sports activity coupe' spawned from the X5 SUV, BMW is planning to repeat the manoeuvre in a more compact form and with bigger sales. The Concept X4 shown in Shanghai is the same length as the mid-sized X3 SUV but wider and with a lower, more coupe-like sloping rear roofline. No interior was available to view but expect a fully-working production model which looked pretty similar to this concept. Available from 2014

Chery @Ant 2.0: The previous @Ant concept at the 2012 Beijing auto show featured an unlikely but interesting pair of scissor-doored vehicles designed to dock with each other to form an energy-saving car-train. The 2.0 version for 2013 is simpler, but more assured in its execution and suggests that some local Chinese carmakers are seeking future mobility solutions as well as meeting existing mainstream demand for saloons and SUVs. Chery is a force to be reckoned with too: it's the same brand that recently inked a joint venture deal to manufacture cars for Jaguar Land Rover in China

Nissan Friend-ME: Try to look beyond the daft name, as this hybrid concept contains some excellent interior technology. A multiple-screen console stretches from front to rear seats through which all occupants can share digital content from their wirelessly-connected portable devices. Developed by Nissan's Beijing-based design studio for mid-20s Chinese males wanting to socially connect with their friends while on the move, it has the content and style to fit in anywhere in the world

Buick Riviera: Buick's not a name that means much in Europe, but parent company General Motors won't be worrying much about that, as in China and the US this old-school American marque is experiencing something of a sales renaissance. Riviera is a revered nameplate from Buick's past and this concept could signal a sportier direction for the brand in coming years beyond its existing saloon and SUV line-up. However, if anything like this coupe makes production, don't bet on huge gull wings like these

Citroen DS Wild Rubis: This Audi Q5-sized plug-in hybrid SUV concept could be on sale by early 2015 - and in a first for Citroen's upmarket DS line - launch in China before Europe (thus the global unveil in Shanghai). The very shiny exterior is attractive in a crossover-kind-of-way and although there was no full interior to view at the show, with its 225hp 1.6-litre petrol engine combined with a 70hp electric motor to allow 31 miles in zero emission mode plus a super-low 43g/km CO2 figure, the overall package suggests an expanding DS range that is set to have fine eco credentials to go with its good looks