From Businessweek:
China extended its lead over the U.S. as the world's biggest auto market in November, with production and sales more than doubling from a year earlier to both surpass 1 million vehicles.
The Shanghai-based China Passenger Car Association, a private research group, Tuesday reported sales of cars and trucks hit 1.01 million in November, up 104 percent from the same month last year, while production was 1.08 million, up 101 percent.
"It is strong evidence of how hot automobile sales are in China, despite oil price hikes and bad snow," Rao Da, secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association, a private research company often cited by local media, told reporters.
Total vehicle sales surpassed 12 million in January-November, with the total for the year likely to exceed a record 13 million, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday, citing figures compiled by the Beijing-based China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
In 2008, sales totaled 9.8 million units.
The government-affiliated CAAM reported Tuesday that passenger car sales, including SUVs and multipurpose vehicles, totaled 9.23 million in the first 11 months of the year, up 50 percent from a year earlier.
China's auto market is sizzling, by any measure, thanks largely to tax cuts and subsidies aimed at supporting the industry and encouraging use of more fuel efficient vehicles.
The boom in sales has clinched China's status, at least for now, as the world's biggest vehicle market due to languishing sales in the U.S.
January-October vehicle sales in the U.S. totaled 8.6 million compared with Autodata CorpChina's figure for 10.9 million in China during the same period.
Full article:
China auto sales, production surpass 1 mln in Nov - BusinessWeek
