GM: China auto market to overtake US by 2015

Shanghai, January 13 (Gasgoo.com) General Motors Corp.'s top executive for its Asia-Pacific region unit yesterday predicted that China could overtake the U.S. as the world's No. 1 auto sales market in 2014 or 2015 if the U.S. market remains slow, the Associated Press reported.

Nick Reilly, president of the division, told reporters at the Detroit Auto Show that industry-wide auto sales in China may decline as much as 10 percent in the first half of 2009 compared to a year ago but could rise slightly to 9.5 million units by the end of the year.

"Growth in the last half of the year 'could be quite robust' depending on how fast government stimulus incentives take effect," Reilly said.

But the forecast represents a further slowdown from the 6.7 percent growth in 2008, which followed years of double-digit sales growth.

Last year, automakers sold 13.2 million vehicles in the U.S., according to Autodata Corp.