Volkswagen has said that it sold a record number of cars in mainland China and Hong Kong in the month of March, as demand for its products boomed amid official measures to encourage the new car market there.
Volkswagen said it sold 112,466 vehicles in China and Hong Kong in March, 9% up from 103,204 units in March 2008.
Sales in the first quarter came to 284,143 cars, up 5.9% from a year earlier, it said.
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“The development of the total passenger car market in the first quarter has exceeded our expectations and we benefited successfully from this growth trend,” Winfried Vahland, president and chief executive of Volkswagen Group China, said.
He added that Volkswagen had revised its sales forecast for the China market this year and increased its annual output plan by 50,000 units.
Vehicle sales in China climbed to a record level in March helped by government measures such as lower purchase taxes, according to data released last week by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
CAAM said that a total of 1.10m vehicles were sold last month, up from 1.06m units in March 2008.
The gain comes in spite of slower growth in the Chinese economy which is feeling the effects of lower exports, most notably to the US.
China’s government has reacted quickly to reduce the impact of economic slowdown on its auto industry with measures such as tax reductions on smaller cars and subsidies for farmers to stimulate demand in rural areas.
General Motors China said last week that its China sales in March rose 24.6% year on year to a monthly record of 137,004 vehicles.
