Despite the worst winter storms in half a century increasing the number of car accidents, China passenger vehicle sales soared to 639,000 vehicles in January, a 32 percent increase over the same period last year.
Saloons accounted for three-quarters of the January figure, while sport utility vehicles (SUV) sales jumped 60.5 percent year on year to 32,000 units, nearly twice as fast as the industry average.
Passenger vehicle production was up 14.5 percent year on year to 566,000 units. This included 423,000 sedans, 35,000 SUVs and 14,500 mini-vans.
With domestic oil prices rather low and a growing rank of nouveau riche, consumers tastes change and the demand for small cars weakened while demand for imported high-end cars remained strong. 81 percent of imported SUVs and 70 percent of imported saloons had engines larger than 2.5-litres, both up 20 percentage points from a year earlier.
Source picture: NYTimes
Leave a Reply