Cars

September vehicle sales jump

By Li Fangfang (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-13 10:15

A model poses next to Dongfeng Motor Group Co's I-Car concept vehicle at the Beijing Auto Show on April 23.[Photo/Agencies]

Passenger segment witnesses best performance on purchase incentives

BEIJING - China's vehicle sales increased 16.9 percent year-on-year in September, with the robust growth bringing the total for the first nine months of the year close to that for the whole of 2009.

China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on Tuesday that 1.56 million vehicles were sold in the nation in September.

Sales in the passenger vehicle segment, including cars, sports-utility vehicles, multi-purpose vehicles and minivans, surged 19.3 percent year-on-year to 1.21 million units in September.

According to the association, total vehicle sales in the first three quarters grew 36 percent from a year earlier to 13.1 million units, approaching the domestic sales of 13.6 million units in 2009, which made China surpass the United Stated as the world's biggest auto market for the first time.

The association said that the brisk sales of passenger vehicles, partly boosted by the purchase incentives provided by government, automakers and dealers, accounted for 45.9 percent of September's growth.

The association also lifted its expectations for whole-year sales back to 17 million units for 2010, after it lowered the bar to 15 million earlier this year.

"With this high-speed growth, we should be optimistic about China's automobile market, at least till 2015," said Wu Wenzhao, an analyst at Donghai Securities.

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"We expect China's annual vehicles sales to reach 46 to 71 million units in 2020, with 300 to 400 million vehicles on the road."

The strong demand in China's auto market also provides a promising future for foreign automakers, who experienced a gloomy period in Western markets during the economic crisis.

Sales by General Motors and its joint ventures in September increased 15 percent on an annual basis to 208,353 units, said the biggest foreign automaker in China. It was the first time GM's September sales surpassed 200,000 units in the world's largest vehicle market. Its sales in China for the first nine months, which totaled 1,775,764 units, also set a new record for the period.

German luxury brand Mercedes-Benz reported on Tuesday its China sales climbed 129 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of this year, with the company delivering 101,350 vehicles.

"We are pleased to see that our growing achievements here have already helped us surpass our sales target for all of 2010 in just the first three quarters," said Klaus Maier, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz (China) Ltd.

"Looking forward, this gives us great confidence for continued success during what is already our best year ever in China."

Volkswagen AG also said on Tuesday that its China sales rose 39 percent in the first nine months of the year to 1.48 million vehicles, surpassing record sales in 2009.