China H1 passenger vehicles sales 3.61 mln units

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - Sales of passenger vehicles, including sedans, multipurpose vehicles and sport-utility vehicles, totaled 3.61 mln in the first half of 2008, up 17.07 pct year-on-year, the Xinhua news agency reported, citing figures from the semi-official China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

The growth rate was 5.19 percentage points below that of the same period in 2007 because of increasing oil prices and looming restrictions on vehicle use in the runup to the Beijing Olympics, it said.

The total included 2.67 mln sedans, 224,300 sport-utility vehicles and 111,400 multipurpose vehicles, up 16.72 pct, 42 pct and 4.09 pct year-on-year, respectively.

FAW-VW and Shanghai VW - Volkswagen's two joint ventures in China - and General Motors' Shanghai GM led the sales rankings in the first half.

In June, a total of 588,300 passenger vehicles were sold, up 15.23 pct year-on-year, including 433,600 sedans, up 13.19 pct, 45,200 sport-utility vehicles, up 49.25 pct and 18,100 multipurpose vehicles, up 4.53 pct.