Japanese carmakers are likely to face difficulties in maintaining their current share of the Chinese market, which has become the world’s largest, a senior official at China’s auto industry group said on Monday.
Xiong Chuan Lin, deputy secretary general of the China Association of Automotive Manufacturers, told a news conference in Tokyo that sales of car brands produced by Chinese automakers are expected to grow, making it difficult for Japanese automakers to maintain their share, Kyodo News reported.
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According to the association, Japanese-brand passenger cars accounted for 21% of all sales in China in 2009, the largest among foreign brands, while those of Chinese-brand vehicles accounted for 44%, up 4 percentage points year on year.
Xiong said he thought sales of Toyotas had not declined sharply in China and could grow if Toyota responds to the recall problems appropriately.
Xiong said year-on-year new car sales in China are expected to continue increasing by 10 to 15% annually until 2015, adding that sales could rise to 16.5m units, 1.5 higher than publicly announced by the association.
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