China's auto sales growth decelerated further in August to 8.5 per cent while sales of SUVs surged by nearly a third.
Drivers in the world's biggest auto market by vehicle sales bought 1.5 million passenger cars in August, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Thursday. Total sales, including trucks and buses, rose 4 per cent to 1.7 million vehicles.
Global automakers are looking to China to drive global sales but growth has slowed steadily as the world's No. 2 economy cooled from double digit rates of expansion. Auto sales growth declined from 13.9 per cent in May to June's 11.5 per cent and to 9.7 per cent in July.
The market share of Chinese auto brands eroded further in August under intense pressure from U.S., European and Asian brands that are spending heavily to appeal to local tastes.
Sales of Chinese-brand passenger vehicles grew by 5.7 per cent while those for German, Japanese and American brands increased by 21.6 per cent, 15.1 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. Chinese brands' share of the market declined by 1 percentage point to 37.1 per cent.
The standout vehicle category was sport utility vehicles. Sales rose 30 per cent to 311,000 vehicles. That compared with 35.3 per cent growth for the first seven months of the year.
Earlier, General Motors Co. said sales of GM brand vehicles by the company and its local partners rose 14 per cent to 280,178 vehicles. The company said it was a new August record and the third-best month this year. For the first eight months of the year, sales rose 11.1 per cent to 2.3 million vehicles.
— Ford Motor Co. said sales rose 9 per cent to 77,506 vehicles and year-to-date sales were up 30 per cent at 717,537 vehicles
— Nissan Motor Co., the biggest Japanese brand in China, said August sales were off 0.7 per cent at 85,500 vehicles but year-to-date sales were up 9.4 per cent at 1.4 million vehicles.
— Toyota Motor Co., a relative latecomer to China's auto market, said sales rose 108.9 per cent to 78,500 and by 109.7 per cent for the year so far to 619,200 vehicles.
— German luxury brand BMW AG said its sales in the first eight months of the year rose 19.9 per cent to 298,752 vehicles.
— Porsche said deliveries in China to date this year rose 15 per cent over a year earlier to 28,000.
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China Association of Automobile Manufacturers: www.caam.org.cn
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