Dongfeng Motor Group car sales up 74% in March

Shanghai, April 12 (Gasgoo.com) Major Chinese automaker Dongfeng Motor Group recently said that its passenger car sales in March grew 60.94% from a year earlier to 34,100 units and output increased 74.07% to 31,400 units, media reported.

Last month, the company produced 23,200 light vehicles, up 67.77%, with sales rose 49.11% to 25,400 units. It also sold a total of 8,680 SUVs, MPVs, and pickups, up 95.92%. Meanwhile, Dongfeng Motor's engine sales surged 152.4% to 21,800 units in March.

China's passenger car sales in March rose 63.2% from a year earlier to 1.26 million units. Government stimulus measures, such as tax cuts for small cars and trade-in subsidies for clean vehicles, have spurred China's auto sales since early last year.

Dongfeng Motor Group, the China partner of PSA Peugeot-Citroen, Honda Motor and Nissan Motor, sold 1.05 million passenger cars in 2009, up 45.6% year on year, as government's stimulus boosted auto demand.

The Dongfeng-Nissan venture will start selling Nissan's Leaf electric compact car in China early next year and "want to make Leaf in China as soon as possible," said a top executive of Nissan China last week.