Changan Oct sales up 122% to 127,600 vehicles

Shanghai, November 5 (Gasgoo.com) Chinese automaker Changan Automobile (Group) Co., Ltd. sold 127,600 vehicles in October, a surge of 122% from a year earlier, and total sales for the first ten months grew 57% to 1,131,500, SinoCast reported today.

From January to October, its listed subsidiary Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. Ltd. sold 332,800 vehicles. Up to 211,200 units were sold by the branch in Hebei province, north China, and total sales of the Nanjing branch rocketed 193% year-on-year to 115,300 units.

Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co. Ltd. and Chongqing Changan Suzuki Automobile Corp., two joint ventures of Changan Group, sold 255,800 and 120,500 cars, respectively, in the first 10 months. Another JV Jiangling Motors, located in southern Jiangxi province, sold 96,000 vehicles.

The group's auto sales this year had surpassed 1 million by the end of September, compared with 739,300 in the full year of 2008. Changan has become the fourth Chinese automaker to reach annual sales of over 1 million vehicles, after FAW, SAIC, and Dongfeng.

Changan Group has benefited from government's stimulus policies for low-emission vehicles and subsidies for auto sales in rural areas. In the first nine months, Changan sold about 500,000 small vehicles (or minivans), up 76.5% from a year earlier.