Honda Motor Co delivered 41,205 vehicles to Chinese customers, a year-on-year drop of 29.2 percent, but a recovery from a fall of 54 percent in October and 40.5 percent in September.

With Japanese automakers losing market share in the world's largest vehicle market, this is providing an opportunity for rivals from Germany, the United States and South Korea to boost their sales.

General Motors, the biggest foreign automaker in China by sales, reported on Thursday that it has set an annual sales record in China, even though there is still a month to go. With domestic sales of 260,018 vehicles in November, GM's sales for the year reached 2,593,642 in the first 11 months, surpassing the 2,547,171 vehicles it sold in China for the whole of 2011.

Last month's sales were also the highest for November and the second-highest for any month in the US automaker's largest market, rising 9.7 percent from November 2011.

German vehicle maker Mercedes-Benz posted China sales of 186,720 for Mercedes-Benz, Smart and AMG vehicles up to the end of November, year-to-date growth of 7 percent.

lifangfang@chinadaily.com.cn