China's Car Sales Down in October-To 80 Percent Growth

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

So used has the MSM become to China’s red hot car growth, that Reuters headlines the October sales report “Chinese car sales dip in October, but still robust.” China’s passenger vehicle sales clocked-in a year-on-year growth of 79.6 percent in October. In September, the growth was 83.62 percent, which serves as the reason for Reuter’s slight concern.


During the first 10 months of the year, Chinese passenger vehicle sales surged 52.4 percent over the same period last year to 8.08 million units, said Rao Da, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association, to China Daily. He’s less concerned than Reuters: “We are optimistic that the November figures would surpass that of October as sales normally peak toward the end of the year.” With the new data under their belt, the industry association expects “full-year automobile sales to touch 13.5 million with a year-on-year growth rate of 44 percent.” Stating the obvious, Rao said this would make China the world’s largest automobile market for the whole year.”

And in the next: If the government will continue its stimulus package for the automobile industry, the growth rate for the 2010 could reach 25 percent, Rao figures. That would mean more than 16m units in China for 2010, a number the US reached in its heydays. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said the government is considering extending the favorable tax policies into the next year.

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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  • CyCarConsulting CyCarConsulting on Nov 07, 2009

    When I was in Bejing and Guandong in 2000 the traffic was already horrific with conjestion. I can't imagine how anything will move in the near future, not to mention the air pollution.

  • Bertel Schmitt Bertel Schmitt on Nov 08, 2009

    I don't know where all the concern about congestion and pollution comes from. China and the USA are approximately equal in size. Both have their empty spaces and their high population density areas. The USA has about one fourth of the population of China, but the USA has about twice the number of motor vehicles on the road than China. The USA has about 800 cars per 1000 pop. China has about 50 cars per thousand. Who should we worry about?

  • Mike999 Mike999 on Nov 08, 2009

    The recession is over, in China. There's our recovery. So, you can thank the Walton family and Walmart-Target-HomeDepot-Lowes, etc, all the big box stores destroying the working classes and the American small business community. You fools don't even know you're being played.

  • JonnyZX JonnyZX on Nov 09, 2009

    All this growth in China is being fueled by one thing: Stimulus...in other words, debt. In fact China's government is printing money almost as fast as ours to cover losses from the huge loss in exports. The good thing is, they have huge savings. The bad part is, well, they have a massive bubble economy too that is going to blow up in their faces.

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