China to see slight vehicle output and sales growth of around 3% in 2017 and 2018

Shanghai (Gasgoo)-China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) forecasted that the output and sales of the Chinese vehicle market would reach 29,000,000 units in 2017, leading the world for nine consecutive years. It is a foregone conclusion that Chinese vehicle market will see a slight growth in 2017 and 2018. 

According to the statistics from CAAM, China produced 25,998,800 vehicles during the past 11 months, increasing 3.88% year on year, and sold 25,844,900 vehicles with a year-on-year increase of 3.59%. Consequently, CAAM lowered its expected growth of 5% which was forecasted at the beginning of 2017.

Xu Haidong, Assistant to the Secretary General of CAAM, said that their forcast for 2018 vehicle output and sales growth in the Chinese market would be around 3%, which is a little weaker than that of 2017. 

CAAM pointed that Chinese vehicle market would see weak growth over the next few years. In specific, traditional sedans, commercial vehicles are likely to bear negative output and sales growth, while SUVs and NEVs are expected to see output and sales surge. According to CAAM, China's economy is undergoing high-quality development, so is the Chinese auto industry. Particularly in first and second-tier cities, with the trend of consumption upgrade growing more and more obviously, consumers tend to buy mid and high-end vehicles.