China may overtake U.S. as No.1 car market

Shanghai, February 5 (Gasgoo.com) China has likely passed the U.S. in monthly vehicle sales for the first time in history, a trend that could also make China into the world's largest new car market this year, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Automakers in the U.S. sold about 668,000 cars and trucks in January, compared with about 790,000 in China, according to Mike DiGiovanni, General Motors Corp.'s executive director of global market and industry analysis.

"This is the first time in history that China has passed the United States in monthly sales," Mike DiGiovanni, General Motors Corp.'s executive director of global market and industry analysis, said in a conference call on late Tuesday.

Official data for China's auto sales in January will not be out until next week, but they are expected to be somewhere around 790,000 units for the month, Zhang Xin, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Beijing, told the Associated Press.

For all of 2009, DiGiovanni projected that Chinese auto sales are likely to hit 10.7 million vehicles, more than the estimated 9.8 million unit sales in the U.S.

However, it is worth noting that China's sales figures include every vehicle sold, including commercial vehicles and busses, while U.S. figures only include passenger cars. Actually, China only sold 5.8 million new passenger cars in 2008.

Still, the report said China with its huge population of more than 1.3 billion will catch up with the U.S to become the world's largest new auto market sooner or later.