The year is slowly coming to an end. Only one month to go. China’s industry association CAAM is no doubt looking at early reports of the November sales (official numbers will be released in a week or so.) That look emboldened the CAAM to come to a semi-official prediction: “China is expected to record auto sales volume of more than 17 million units this year” said the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), according to Gasgoo.
Still hedging a bit, aren’t we? Well, J.D.Power already predicted that China’s auto sales for 2010 will be around 18m this year. But then, the CAAM said “more than 17 million,” right?
It definitely looks like China will take away the “most automobiles sold in a year in all times” record this year, held by the U.S. for what seems to be eons.
While we are citing predictions:
The CAAM cautiously predicts that China’s auto sales volume “is expected to exceed 25 million units by 2015.” How much, they don’t say.
Further in the prediction department, China’s dependency on imported oil is expected to rise from 50 percent to 60 percent or higher with the increase in domestic auto sales. There it is again: “Or higher.”
Mostest pollution, mostest congestion, mostest ….
Maybe you have identified the reason oil futures keep rising. This despite declining oil demand in the west due to the recession and efficient replacement automobiles.
Without key rare earths you can’t make the batteries that go into electric cars. China has the largest accessible deposits in the world of these rare earths, so electrification is dependent on China playing nice.
The largest untapped deposits in the world are in Afghanistan. Things that make you go hmmmm.
No, no, no, this can’t be. China’s car economy is a false bubble that will collapse when the global economy slows down. Shoot, with GDP growth of only 10% recession has to be right around the corner.