Imported vehicle sales to see sharp drop in Q1

Shanghai, February 3 (Gasgoo.com) China's imported vehicle sales will drop by 10% in 2009 due to the global economic downturn, with the largest decline likely to occur in the first quarter, Beijing Morning Post reported, citing Ding Hongxiang, director and general manager of China Automobile Trading Co.

Vehicle imports (including SKDs) are expected to reach 360,000 units in 2009, a 10% drop from last year, Ding estimated.

A sharp decline of imported vehicles is likely to happen in the first quarter or even for the first half of this year, he said. As the Chinese government raised its car sales/purchase tax on high-emission luxury vehicles last year, imported vehicles have seen significantly sales fall as 46.5% of such vehicles have engine sizes bigger than 3.0L, which is a limit for heavy-emission cars.

Estimates suggest that the cost of vehicles with displacement of 3.0L to 4.0L has increased 13.3% and the cost of vehicles above 4.0L risen 33.3% since the sales tax on high-emission vehicles were raised.

According to Ding, sales of imported vehicles above 4.0L will suffer a big drop in the Chinese market in 2009.