Auto registration in H1 boosted by policies

Shanghai, July 8 (Gasgoo.com) In the first half of this year, the number of China's registered motor vehicles has reversed the slump from late 2008 and showed a sign of rapid growth, thanks to a series of stimulus policies for the auto market, said the People's Daily online.

Industry analysts noted that the number of registered motor vehicles showed a noticeable rebound starting from February, driven by fuel tax reform and lowered purchase tax for low-emission cars. In particular, the "vehicles going to the countryside" program implemented since March has further accelerated the increase of registered motor vehicles.

In the first six months of 2009, the number of motor vehicles increased by 36,814 units per day to a total of 6,663,385 units. This represents an increase of 3.92% from the end of 2008, and an increase of 10,837,782 million units or 6.54% from a year earlier.

Since February 2009, the number of registered motor vehicles has shown rapid growth for five straight months, with an average increase of 1.11 million units per month. The increase is noticeably higher than the average monthly increase of 695,732 units in the second half of last year.

The number of China's registered automobiles increased by 7.66% from the end of last year, or by 13.73% year-on-year, and accounted for 39.44% of total motor vehicles, an increase of 1.37 percentage points from the end of last year.

The number of registered motorcycles increased by 1.89% from the end of last year, or by 2.66% year-on-year, and accounted for 51.67 percent of total motor vehicles, a drop of 1.03 percentage points from the end of last year.

The number of registered small-sized passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks increased rapidly, by 12.67% and 7.63% year-on-year respectively, thanks to tax cut and exemption policies for low-emission cars and the "vehicles going to the countryside" policy.

The proportion of private cars continued to increase. By the end of June, the number of registered private motor vehicles accounted for 76.84% of total motor vehicles, up 4.65% from the end of last year. Private cars accounted for 66.42% of total registered vehicles.

In addition, in the first six months of 2009, the number of China's motor vehicle drivers increased by 4.53% year-on-year, and 68.39% of them are automobile drivers, 1.85 times the number of registered automobiles, according to People's Daily.