Gasgoo.com (Shanghai May 10) - A total of 1.62 million vehicles were sold in the country last month, Caijing reported today, citing statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. The figure is equivalent to a year-on-year increase of 5.2 percent, representing steady growth for the Chinese automobile market. Domestic own more manufacturers, meanwhile, saw their market share decrease again.

According to the CAAM statistics, automobile production numbers for the month totaled 1.65 million units, 7.8 percent higher than last April's result. Once again, passenger vehicles account for the majority of monthly sales, with a total of 1.28 million units sold, 12.5 percent more than what was sold last April. Commercial vehicle sales, meanwhile, fell 20.6 percent from March and 15 percent from last year, finishing at 350,000 units. SUVs continued to gain popularity, constituting over 20 percent of all passenger vehicle sales. Sedan sales remained steady, while sales of crossovers fell slightly.

Domestic own brand manufacturers managed to only sell 520,000 vehicles in the month, CAAM Deputy Secretary Zhu Yiping confirmed. Their year-on-year sales growth rate was 5.1 percent, slightly less than the industry average. Own brands occupied 40.8 percent of the monthly market share for passenger vehicles, 2.4 percent less than March and 2.8 percent less than last April.

A total of 6.42 million vehicles have been sold since the beginning of the year, 1.3 percent less than the same period in 2011.

Source:gasgoo.com