Auto Incentives Boost Car Sales in Jan.
16 March 2009
On February 10th, China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released the latest statistic data: in the first month of 2009, the vehicle output of China reached 658.8 thousand, increasing 5.07 percent month-on-month; the sales volume was 735.5 thousand, down 0.83 percent month-on-month. In which the production and sales volume of passenger vehicle was 526.8 thousand and 610.5 thousand respectively, up 7.74 percent and 4.43 percent month-on-month. After the consecutive depression in the fourth quarter of last year, such a result of auto market in the beginning of New Year is relatively satisfactory on the whole, especially when global auto market is still suffering difficulty. Distributors from Beijing, Chongqing, Chengdu and Wuhan all used words like "hot" to describe auto market before the Chinese New Year; and the activation of the market could be described by the fact that some brands were sold out at that time with the increasing number of vehicle-purchaser.
Insiders reckon the hot sales was partly because that Chinese New Year eve was traditional midseason, what's more important, favorable policies such as fuel tax reform and cutting the vehicle purchase tax of on passenger vehicle with engine of 1.6 liter or lower to 5 percent also provided an impetus. Encouraged by the policies, low emission vehicles was welcomed by consumers. Looking at the emission based sales data of passenger vehicles, vehicles with engine of 1.6 liter or lower had a quick month-on-month increase, the increase rate was 18.8 percent, up 1.5 percent year on year, both higher than the overall increase level of passenger vehicles and has made a great contribution to the total sales. On the contrary, sales volume of vehicles with engine above 1.6 liter all went down, in which passenger vehicles with engine between 1.6 liter and 2-liter decreased by over 20 percent. Simple figure could reflect the market change, and the direct feelings of distributors all over the country could also prove such a change. According to distributors' introduction, there were obviously more consumers inquiring vehicles with engine of 1.6 liter or lower before the Spring Festival. Although many of them postponed their purchase plan considering that relevant department suspended the formalities during the spring festival, these people could be regarded as potential consumers of low emission vehicles. The performance of low emission vehicle market after the festival is still worth a look.
From the two contrasting figures and the introduction of sales people, it is not difficult to see that the issuance of favorable policies is functioning in releasing the consumption potential and adjusting vehicle consumption structure. We can say that low emission vehicle is becoming a key factor that affects China's auto market performance this year.
Among all kinds of low emission passenger vehicles, the performance of cross passenger vehicles was the most notable in January. The production and sales volume of January was higher than every month of 2008, and the month-on-month increase rate of production and sales volume both exceeded 50 percent. China Association of Automobile Manufacturers analyzed that the major market of cross passenger car was rural area, policy of supporting agriculture, the upgrading of vehicles and local consumers' high sensitivity of price all promoted the hot sales of the vehicle type. Cross passenger vehicle therefore benefited the most from the policies compared with other types.
Source : internet
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