New vehicle sales in China increased by just 2% to 2.7m units in October from 2.65m units a year earlier, according to a Reuters report citing data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
This was the fifth consecutive month of growth for the market and brings cumulative 10 month sales to 22.3m units, up by 4.1% on the 22m sold in the same period of last year.
This puts in doubt the government's 5% growth target for the market for the full year, after volumes increased by almost 14% to 28.03m units in 2016.
Sales of new energy vehicles, comprising mostly electric and hybrid vehicles, rose by 107% to 91,000 units last month and by over 45% to 490,000 units in the first 10 months of the year.
General Motors and its local joint ventures enjoyed a 10.7% sales rise to a record 382,723 vehicles in China last month, helped by new model launches across all brands. In the first 10 months of the year, the group's sales in China increased by 2.2% to 3,130,862 units.
Volkswagen brand sales rose by 9.2% to 303,800 units in China last month and by 5.4% to 2.583m units in the first 10 months of the year while Audi sales were 14.5% higher at an estimated 49,450 units last month and up by 3% at 468,200 units year to date.
Toyota group sales increased by 13.5% to 112,700 units in October and by 8.5% to 1.07m units year to date.
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By GlobalDataFord's Chinese sales fell by 5% to 105,809 units last month and volume in the first 10 months of the year was also 5% lower at 938,570 units.