The Shame, The Embarrassment, The Iniquity: China Beats US

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

China’s automobile sales should hit an all-time high in March and help the country to beat the US in automobile sales during the first quarter, a key official from the national planning body said to Gasgoo.

“The 14 major automakers sold 1.026 million vehicles in China last month, which account for 90 to 91 percent of the total market,” said Chen Bin, director general of the Department of Industry at the National Development and Reform Commission.

The total sales will likely overtake the monthly sales record of 1.059 million units in March 2008.

This will be the third consecutive month that China has sold more vehicles than the US. It also puts the Middle Kingdom well on its way to become the worldwide king of auto sales in 2009, toppling the US from its threadbare throne. It will also help Volkswagen in its race to the #2 spot behind Toyota. VW is underexposed in the US, but very strong in China.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Luther Luther on Apr 08, 2009

    It makes sense...One nation is full of idiot gimme-gimme "socialist" peasants and the other has 1.4B people.

  • Volvo Volvo on Apr 08, 2009
    However, I’m still ashamed. Not that the Chinese bought more cars than America, but that WE (AMERICAN Companies) aren’t in there getting rich, rich, rich. We’re the leading Capitalist Pigs in the world, and we should be gorging on the opportunities. Have we gone soft and lazy? Or was it just a failure of vision? Part soft and lazy but mainly naive (is that lack of vision?). We have for decades opened our borders for people and companies. China chooses to "look after their own". If a business deal works to China's advantage then they will allow it. If at any time it is to their advantage to take over the joint venture or foreign investment then they will, one way or another, do that. When we become as "hungry" as China then things may turn around but right now we have firmly set our sights on achieving second class world status.
  • R H R H on Apr 08, 2009

    I think naturally by numbers, china should be buying more cars than the US. Also, for punctuation, it seems euro = brazillian punctuation. My wife always writes 1.000,00 for 1,000.00 (US) and it drives me nuts. She also does her dates "backwards" and speaks in kg and km. She also writes 09/03 for march 9th. Ah well, at least she uses US time since she lives here :) What is even more funny is she talks with my parents who have not been out of the us for 30+ years and still uses the same nomenclature. Hilarity is common.

  • Analyst Analyst on Apr 08, 2009

    @Robstar: It's about time the US starts using SI units like, you know, the rest of the world.

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