China's passenger car sales drop 1.44% in Sept

Shanghai, October 10 (Gasgoo.com) China's passenger vehicle sales fell 1.44% in September from a year earlier to 552,800 units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

That means the passenger car sales in the Chinese market shrank for the second straight month in September, the industry data showed today, as a slowing economy put a damper on fast-growing demand in the world's second-largest vehicle market after the United States.

China's PV sales drop in September followed a 6.24% decline in August, the first slide since 2004 which marked a staggering U-turn for an industry that had seen years of double-digit sales growth. Besides the slowing economy, higher fuel prices, more tax on big-engine cars and the Beijing Olympics had also been blamed for keeping Chinese customers from buying cars.

Ford Motor's vehicle sales in China in the January-September period grew 7.13% year on year, compared with 30% growth one year ago. Volkswagen AG saw 13.1% sales growth in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau during the first nine months of 2008, against 30% growth of one year earlier.

In its report issued yesterday about the global auto market crisis, industry researcher J.D. Power and Associates forecast China auto sales growth this year at 9.7%, down sharply from last year's 24.1%.