The Shame, The Embarrassment, The Iniquity: China Beats US
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 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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It makes sense...One nation is full of idiot gimme-gimme "socialist" peasants and the other has 1.4B people.
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.
@Robstar: It's about time the US starts using SI units like, you know, the rest of the world.