#TotalSales2011

After rocketing up by 32 percent in the year before, the Chinese car market took a break last year. China’s automobile sales eked out a small gain of 2.45 percent to 18.50 million units last year. As the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said in a press conference this afternoon, this was the slowest growth in 13 years.

With 8.16 million cars delivered globally, sales of the Volkswagen group grew14.3 percent from 7.14 million in 2010. Volkswagen estimates that the global passenger car market grew only 5.1 percent, therefore, the Wolfsburg group expanded its global market share. With GM (due to report next month) expected to be in the low 9 million, and Toyota expected to be in the high 7 million, Volkswagen will end the year as the world’s #2 auto maker, behind GM and before Toyota.

More than a quarter of GM’s global production is sold in China. General Motors and its Chinese joint ventures sold a record 2,547,171 vehicles in China in 2011, “an average of one car or truck every 12 seconds,” as GM proudly publicizes. Sales in 2011 were up 8.3 percent, despite a laggardly Chinese market.

GM’s percentage number would be higher, wouldn’t it be for GM’s Chinese volume king Wuling. More than half of GM’s Chinese numbers are on account of the Chinese expert on small delivery vans. SAIC-GM-Wuling sold 1,285,820 vehicles in China last year, a rise of 4.8 percent on an annual basis.