China car sales up 27.1% in Oct, year-end demand is solid

Automakers in China shipped 1.2 percent more passenger cars to dealers in October than a year earlier, extending a rebound from August as people rushed to buy cars before Beijing's policy incentives expire at year-end.

But it was not a rosy picture across the board. General Motors, Volkswagen and Ford Motor continued to shine, but Toyota Motor and BYD saw their sales turning south for different reasons.

"The market seemed to have lost some of its steam in June and July but bounced back again since August. It's quite likely that we will end the year with a rather positive note again," said Chen Liang, an analyst with Huatai Securities.

Monthly sales may top the 1-million mark in November and December, thanks to year-end promotions by automakers eager to achieve or exceed their annual sales target, other industry observers say.

Beijing had in 2009 unveiled tax incentives for cars with engine sizes of 1.6 liters or smaller.

The incentives, which had been scaled back since January this year, will expire December 31.

In October, a total of 1.2 million sedans, sport utility vehicles and multi-purpose vehicles were shipped to dealers, compared with 946,400 units a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Tuesday.

That compared with the September tally of 1.2 million units, which represents a year-on-year growth of 19.3 percent.

Overall vehicle sales, which also include buses and heavy trucks, came to 1.54 million units, up 25.5 percent from a year ago.

While reporting a mere 3.5 percent auto sales gain in its home market in October, lagging a 13 percent gain in the US market, GM's China auto sales gained 19.6 percent in the month.

Sales of Volkswagen's car venture with top Chinese auto group SAIC Motor jumped 45.3 percent.