Research group: China passenger car sales surge 50 pct in March from year earlier
By APFriday, April 9, 2010
Group: China passenger car sales up 50 pct in Mar.
SHANGHAI — China’s passenger car sales jumped 49 percent in March from a year earlier as manufacturers scrambled to meet strong demand by government tax cuts and subsidies, an industry research group said Friday.
Sales including minivans totaled 1.15 million units, the Shanghai-based China Passenger Car Association reported, citing data from automakers. The same group said earlier that February sales rose 45 percent from a year earlier to 881,085 units for the month.
Inventories remain low thanks to strong demand stoked by government tax incentives and subsidies for purchases of small vehicles.
Weak demand in the United States and strong buying in China helped make this the world’s largest auto market in terms of sales of new vehicles last year, with total vehicle sales jumping 45 percent to 13.6 million.
The China Passenger Car Association said total output jumped 72 percent from the year before in March to 1.3 million units.
“Passenger car sales turned out to be even better than earlier market estimates,” said Rao Da, general secretary for the group.
“We are confident that China’s vehicle sales will surpass 17 million units this year, growing by about 25 percent,” he said.
