BEIJING: China’s car sales rallied 20 percent in November, the fastest rate this year, from a year earlier, helped by a 72 percent rise in purchases of sport-utility vehicles, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday.
The overall car sales hit 2.5 million units last month, with passenger car sales soaring 23.7 percent to 2.2 million units, CAAM added.
Sales by domestic Chinese auto brands outpaced the market, rising 26.9 percent. Their market share grew by 1.1 percentage points to 41.9 percent.
Although sales of SUVs surged 72 percent in November. sales of Chinese-brand SUVs soared 88.1 percent to 395,000 vehicles. Their share of the SUV market expanded by 4.7 percentage points to 55.2 percent.
The overall robust sales are expected to continue into next year to post a 8.2 percent year-on-year increase in China’s light vehicle assembly, said PricewaterhouseCoopers’ automotive analyst group in its Autofacts forecast released yesterday.
Jin Jun, PwC China advisory partner, said that government stimulus measures are driving the car market forward after sales were reined by China’s economic slowdown and other curbs like limits on purchasing in first-tier and second-tier cities.
Auto sales suffered an unexpectedly sharp contraction from June through August. Demand rebounded in September after Beijing reduced sales taxes on vehicles with smaller engines of below 1.6 liters.
The exemption of vehicle purchase taxes for new energy cars since last September has also electrified the market this year whose growth nearly tripled.
PwC predicted that new energy cars will enter a key stage of development in China in the next 5 to 10 years as the government is now focused on environmental protection and green growth.
Domestic carmakers now dominate the electric car market, accounting for all the top 10 best-selling models — equivalent to 75 percent of the overall green car sales.
