SUVs help push auto sales up 10%
Print Edition
CHINESE auto sales rose by nearly 10 percent in March, led by strong demand for SUVs that more than offset slipping passenger car sales, an industry group said yesterday.
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said sales of sedans, sport-utility vehicles and minivans in the world’s biggest auto market rose 9.8 percent year on year to 2.06 million last month.
Sales of SUVs alone rose by nearly half, minivan sales added nearly 18 percent, but sedan sales dipped 3.3 percent.
Total vehicle sales, including trucks and buses, rose 8.8 percent to 2.4 million.
China’s auto sales growth has been cooling since it peaked at 45 percent in 2009 but the country remains a key market for global automakers, which are relying on Chinese consumers’ growing appetite for driving to power revenue.
Auto sales in China totaled 21.1 million units last year, hit by an unexpectedly sharp contraction last summer that unsettled carmakers. Sales rebounded after Beijing responded by cutting taxes in September on vehicles with small engines.
Sales of China’s lower-priced homegrown car brands nearly kept pace with the market’s overall growth, expanding 8.5 percent last month.
Chinese-brand passenger sedan sales fell 21 percent but SUV sales jumped 46 percent and minivan sales rose 19 percent.
General Motors Co said deliveries of vehicles by the company and its Chinese partners fell 0.6 percent to 296,939 in March. SUV deliveries jumped 124 percent, and Cadillac sales grew 14 percent.
Ford Motor Co’s sales rose 5 percent to 114,788, with SUV sales surging 29 percent. The company’s Lincoln brand, which entered China only recently, reported that sales in the first quarter tripled to 5,484.
BMW AG deliveries, including vehicles under its Mini brand, rose nearly 11 percent to 127,105, it said.
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