Passenger vehicle sales in China almost doubled year on year in November, up 98.2% to 1.04m vehicles, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
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The result puts China on course to realise 50% growth in its car market this year, fuelled by government incentives. The November 2009 tally compared with 522,800 units in November 2008 and 946,400 units sold last October.
China’s new vehicle market overtook the United States as the world’s largest earlier this year and, in the first 11 months, 9.23m passenger cars were sold in the country, up 49.7% from a year earlier, exceeding the 6.76m sold in calendar 2008.
Overall vehicle sales, including trucks and buses, jumped 96.4% year on year last month to 1.34m units, the association said, after gaining 72.5% in October.
Analysts expect the market to slow next year if the government opts not to renew sales incentives and tax cuts which expire at the end of this month. But there are signs that Beijing may continue its efforts to boost domestic consumption, including automobiles.
According to a recent report by the Shanghai Securities News, the government will continue to support its auto industry next year with more aggressive measures including sales tax cuts that will apply to all passenger cars, not just to cars with a 1.6 litre or smaller engine. Smaller cars or those with lower fuel emission levels will enjoy deeper tax cuts, it said.
Among individual producers, General Motors more than doubled its China sales to 177,339 vehicles in November, continuing its string of monthly sales records since the beginning of the year.
Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp, China’s top vehicle producer, sold 252,190 vehicles, up 91% year on year.
