Vehicle sales rose 13.9% in 2013 to 22m units, says CAAM
China's fast-paced car market Image: Vivian Chen |
According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM car sales grew to 21.98m units last year, bringing the nation’s total parc to 135m automobiles as of October.
Total vehicle sales including cars, trucks and buses also grew at an annualised rate of 14% to 24m.
Meanwhile, auto output rose at a similar pace of 14.8% to 22.12m units in the same period.
GM, which sold 3.1m units in 2013, lost the title of China's biggest foreign auto brand by sales to German rival VW, which sold 3.27m units in the same period, knocking the US car giant off the top spot for the first time in nine years.
Japanese carmakers also saw sales climb steadily back to pre-2012 levels, with Toyota and Nissan making the biggest gains.
China's homegrown automakers, however, saw their share of the domestic market shrink by 1.6% to just 40.6%. Amid declining sales at home, exports also declined by 7.7% to just 977,300 units. Not all domestic brands fared badly in 2013, however. Great Wall's Haval Jeep bested foreign rivals as the nation's most popular SUV.
CAAM deputy secretary general Shi Jianhua predicted both sales and production growth would slow in 2014 to around 10% and 8% respectively, which is a change in pace for the breakneck growth over the last decade, when the nation’s fleet expanded by 20m units in just twelve years.
In a recent interview with Autonewschina.com, Harry Chen, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities Co, predicted automakers would have to count more on "smaller cities and inland areas for growth" as big cities continue to implement curbs on purchasing. Local automakers would also have to "bring their A-game" if they are to compete with foreign JVs, claimed Chen.