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.'
