China's passenger vehicle sales top 1.3M units in Jan

Shanghai, February 20 (Gasgoo.com) China's passenger vehicle sales hit a new high in January to exceed 1.3 million units, Xinhua News reported yesterday, citing official data.

Last month, passenger vehicle sales surged 110% year on year (and 18.11% month on month) to 1.32 million units while output increased 130% y/y (and 4.33% m/m) to 1.24 million units, said the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

Specifically, in January, car sales hit 930,300 units, up 110% y/y (+12.92% m/m); MPV sales reached 39,100 units, up 230% y/y (+25.12% m/m); SUV sales totaled 94,400 units, up 160% y/y (+4.59% m/m); crossover sales came to 252,200 units, up 95.04% y/y (+49.34% m/m).

Homegrown passenger vehicle sales hit 647,400 units in January, representing 49.19% of the country's total. The passenger vehicle sales of Japanese, German, U.S., S. Korean, and French brands stood at 250,400, 156,200, 127,800, 97,100 and 37,100 units respectively.

Chinese-brand car sales amounted to 323,000 units in January, making up 34.72 percent of total car sales. SAIC-GM-Wuling took the lead among Chinese passenger vehicle producers in January by selling 119,969 units (mostly minivans), up 59.6% y/y.

Previous data from the China Passenger Car Association said the country's sales of passenger cars (including cars, SUVs, MPVs and minivans) rose 84% in January from a year earlier to 1,218,722 units.

Last year, China's passenger vehicle sales jumped 52.9% to 10.3 million units, with sales in December alone jumped 88.7% from a year earlier to 1.1 million units, said the CAAM.