With many of the world’s established car markets leveling off, emerging markets — such as China — are quickly become the next frontier for the world’s automakers. And if the first two months of the year are any indication, 2008 is looking to be another record year.
According to just-auto, vehicles sales increased by 19.3 percent — when compared to the same time period in 2007 –in China during the first two months of the year, totaling 1.52 million vehicles.
That increase even includes a decline in February sales, due to the Lunar New Year holiday and snow storms that wreaked havoc on southern China. Chinese auto sales typical see a sharp decline before and just after the Lunar New Year holiday.
In addition to strong growth is the passenger vehicle segment, sales of commercial vehicles were also on the rise. Commercial vehicle sales increased by 21.3 percent in January and February, totaling 970,168 vehicles.
The report should be good news to General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, all of which saw double-digit increases in their Chinese sales in 2007.
