Mainland car sales surge past million-a-month mark
The mainland's passenger car sales last month rose 83.6 per cent from a year earlier to more than one million vehicles, the first time the nation's carmakers have passed seven figures. The increase was largely because of government incentives.
According to official figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, 1.02 million passenger cars, including sports utility vehicles and multi-purpose vehicles, were sold last month, up from 858,300 sales in August and 552,800 sales in August last year.
The country's total vehicle sales - which count in the passenger car segment, buses and trucks - will be announced later but had exceeded one million units per month for six consecutive months by the end of August.
September and October are generally regarded as the prime season for car sales in the second half as many mainlanders take road trips during the National Day golden week holiday.
The association said that with Beijing's customer incentive programmes, it expected sales to reach about 12.6 million vehicles by the end of the year, up from 8.8 million units last year.
By comparison, sales in the United States are expected to reach about 11 million units this year, and gradually pick up next year.
'The robust sales were mainly because of high demand in second and third-tier cities,' said analyst Wu Hao at Shanghai Shenyin Wanguo Research. 'Of course, the government's stimulus policies helped contribute to sales.'
Beijing paid subsidises of up to 5,000 yuan (HK$5,676) to villagers buying a 30,000 yuan to 40,000 yuan car as part of its economic stimulus efforts. In addition, it has slashed the consumption tax on cars with engines of 1.6 litres or less to 5 per cent from 10 per cent.
'Because of the tax benefits, I decided to buy a car,' said Wang Wei, 27, who works as a public relations officer.
Many banks and credit card companies have launched joint promotions with car dealers to provide favourable sales packages, such as zero-interest loans for 12 instalments, to entice customers.
The sales figures of individual carmakers showed stronger sales were widespread.
Shanghai's SAIC Motor Corp, which has joint ventures with Volkswagen China and General Motors China, said yesterday its car sales jumped 47 per cent to 1.94 million units in the first nine months of the year from a year ago. The carmaker reported that net profit jumped more than 70 per cent for the three quarters to 2.23 billion yuan.
'Over the next five years, GM will introduce more than 30 all-new or refreshed products across our brands in China,' said GM president and chief executive Fritz Henderson during his first visit to China yesterday.
On Saturday, GM signed an agreement to sell its Hummer brand to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery.
Ford China said it had achieved sales of 168,217 units in the first nine months, an increase of 37 per cent from last year. Car sales for Honda on the mainland rose 26.6 per cent to 59,140 units in September.
Shares of Geely Automobile Holdings rose 5.09 per cent yesterday to HK$2.48 after it reported sales jumped 42 per cent in the first nine months to 217,334 cars.
