The passenger vehicle market in China grew 26% in the first half of 2007 according to RL Polk. Excluding vans and pick-up trucks, it forecast an annual total registration volume of 4.7m passenger vehicles by the end of 2007 – the market’s annual growth rate has been above 20% since 2004.

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Toyota showed the highest growth in China with a 72.6% increase in vehicle registrations year-on-year. Honda and Nissan came in second and third showing 40.3% and 38.9% growth respectively while Chery was fourth at 27.9%.


Geely and Hyundai-Kia were the only major manufacturers that experienced a year on year decrease in registrations.


Among Chinese automakers, Chery took the leading position followed by FAW-Tianjin and Geely. While these three companies maintained their top ranking positions over the last three years, Changan Auto, which ranked 31st in 2006, rose into the top 10 in 2007.


“Overall we are seeing significant changes in these rankings when it comes to Chinese automakers,” said Polk head Stephen Polk. “We expect this aspect of the Chinese automotive segment to continue to fluctuate as these aggressive companies vie with each other and the rest of the world’s automakers for market share within China.”

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The majority of passenger vehicle registrations occur in the wealthy coastal regions of China. Guangdong province accounted for 11% of all registrations in the first half of 2007. In addition, Guangdong grew at an impressive rate of 37%. Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces followed as second and third strongest with growth of 27% and 9% respectively. Together these three provinces accounted for 29% of all national registrations in 2007.


Conversely, China’s weakest provinces with less than 5% of the country’s total vehicle registrations, Tibet, Qinghai and Hainan, experienced the greatest year on year growth of 69%, 46% and 22% respectively.


The Chinese market is dominated by medium sized vehicles that experienced a growth in market share from 34.1% in the first quarter of 2004 to 47.5% in the second quarter of 2007. In addition, the shares of small vehicles and larger vehicles decreased in the same period from 28.8% to 19.3% and 9.3% to 6.1% respectively.


“Polk has analysed the price development of passenger vehicles in different body sizes and learned that the average price of medium sized vehicles has continuously decreased over the last three and a half years,” said Stephen Polk. “As a result, this segment has grown as Chinese buyers have responded by purchasing more of these vehicles.”