Multinational car brands lead China auto market in Q1

Transnational carmakers like Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Corp. led a wave of sales growth of the Chinese car market during the first quarter of 2008.

Both car output and sales in the country exceeded 2.5 million units during the first three months of this year, with passenger car sales hitting 1.8511 million units, up 20.41% from a year earlier. March alone witnessed over 1 million cars of output and sales, with sales higher than output.

Volkswagen of Germany announced on April 8 that its March sales topped 100,000 cars in China, the highest monthly number ever in the country. Its first quarter sales surged 32.5% to 268,200 cars, the largest number among all the car brands in the country.

Ford Motor saw stable increase of sales in China in the first quarter, with sales of all brands soaring 47% to 90,791 cars, higher than the average car market growth.

Besides, BMW and Benz also reported higher sales rises in the first quarter.