GM: China Will Lead The World For A Long Time

China will lead the U.S. as the world’s biggest auto market for a “long time,” (if not forever.) This assessment doesn’t come from the Chinese propaganda machine. Nick Reilly, GM’s head of international operations, thinks China is too far ahead of the U.S. and demand will grow next year, Bloomberg reports.

Reilly sees vehicle demand in China increase to more than 13 million units next year from about 12.5 million in 2009. “I don’t see the U.S. being anywhere near that,” Reilly said.

China’s car sales have risen more than 35 percent for six straight months, including a 90 percent jump in August. GM doubled its September sales in China to 181,148 vehicles. GM sold 1.29 million units in the first nine months of this year, more than its tally for all of 2008.

Meanwhile, in response to public concerns about the rapidly growing Chinese auto output, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said that the country’s car industry is not overheating, Gasgoo reports.

In view of China’s a large population, China’s total auto output is really not very high, said Zhang Xiangmu, director of MIIT’s equipment manufacturing industries division. “In terms of total vehicles produced and sold, China’s figure is not too high compared to the United States, Europe and Japan.”

He added that this year’s growth in sales can be attributed to the tax cuts for buying low-emission vehicles. The government’s stimulus measures to promote auto sales in rural areas also play an important role.

The tax cuts are scheduled to expire by end of December, but are highly expected to be extended to next year. The MIIT statement is an indicator in that direction.