Retails sales of passenger vehicles grew by almost 25 percent in China in August, marking the country’s sixth consecutive month of increased sales.
Advertisement
Consumers are anticipating the expiration of a tax cut on purchases of vehicles with smaller engines, according to Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the association.
Margins are now so thin on some vehicles that dealers are making just $10 per transaction.
The year-on-year gain was also the biggest since January 2013, compared with 23 per cent growth for July and 14.6 per cent rise in June. Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.’s sales increased 31 percent, with its SUV deliveries nearly doubling.
China’s auto sales grew strongly again in August, driven by demand for smaller cars and the impending end of a sales tax cut.
Auto retail sales totalled 1.8 million vehicles, CPCA said in a statement on its website.
“But when that tax break expires at the end of 2016, we forecast a 4 per cent fall in sales in 2017”, warned Haitong’s Ole Hui and Lily Li in a note.
Advertisement
General Motors Co. said sales by the company and its Chinese manufacturing partners rose 18 per cent to 293,537. China cut levies on small-engine cars by half beginning in October after lobbying by the carmakers association to buttress the nation’s slowing economic growth.
