China's auto sales post slowest growth in a decade

12 January 2009

Vehicle sales in China, the world's second-largest car market, slowed to 6.7 per cent in 2008 after a continuous double-digit growth in the past five years, as the global economic slowdown had an impact on the Chinese car industry.

With 9.38 million vehicles being sold last year, the growth rate is far below the 21.84 per cent increase in 2007, showing the slowest growth in a decade in China, the People's Daily reported today, citing the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

The 9.34 million vehicles produced last year by Chinese car makers, while up by 5.21 per cent, was still the Chinese auto industry's slowest growth in 10 years, against sales and production targets of 10 million units.

Vehicle sales rose 8.5 per cent in the first eleven months from the previous year to 8.6 million vehicles but in November alone, auto sales plunged 14.6 per cent year on year and 8 per cent in December.

Sales of passenger cars were 6.76 million units last year, up by 7.3 per cent year-on-year compared with 21.7 per cent in 2007.

Volkswagen, Europe's largest carmaker, reported record sales of more than 1 million vehicles in China in 2008, which was up by 12.5 per cent but it still missed its annual sales target.