New vehicle sales in China increased by less than 1% to 2.96m units in November from strong year earlier sales of 2.94m units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

Cumulative 11 month sales were up by 3.6% at 25.85m units compared with 24.95m units in the same period of last year, driven by a 15% jump in commercial vehicle sales to 3.75m units from 3.27m units previously.

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Sales of passenger vehicles cars were up by just 1.9% at 22.1m units in the 11 month period, compared with 21.7m units in the same period of last year.

SUV sales increased by 14.5% to 9.09m units in this period, while passenger car sales were 2.3% lower and MPV sales fell by 16.5%.

The market for new energy vehicles, comprising mostly electric and hybrid vehicles, continued to benefit from generous government incentives. Sales in November jumped by 83% to 109,000 units and were up by over 51% at 609,000 units year to date.

CAAM reduced its full year market growth forecast to 4% "at most" this year from last year's 28.03m units. 

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The withdrawal of the small car tax discount at the end of the year is also expected to put pressure on the market in the first quarter of 2018.

The association expects sales of new energy vehicles to exceed 700,000 units this year and is forecasting a further sharp rise to over 1m units in 2018.

In November Chinese brand passenger vehicle sales rose by 5% to 1.2m units, claiming a 45.8% share of segment sales, and were up by 3.8% at approximately 9.6 m units year to date for a 43.4% share of sales.

General Motors and its local joint ventures enjoyed a 13% volume rise to 418,225 units last month and a 3.3% rise to 3.55m units year to date while Ford's equivalent sales were 8% lower at 117,593 units last month and were 6% lower at 1.1m units year to date.

Nissan enjoyed a 21.8% jump in sales to 165,384 last month, lifting year to date sales by 12% to 1.3m units, while Toyota's equivalent sales were higher by 9.9% and 10.7% respectively at 109,600 and 1.2m units, and Honda's were 140,972 units (+11.3%) and 1.3m units (+16.6%).