China's vehicle output and sales grew by a quarter last month from a year ago but tumbled slightly from a strong March, an industry association said yesterday.

 

April vehicle output stood at 686,100 units, up 25.2 percent year-on-year, according to statistics from China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

 

Sales of domestically made vehicles last month gained by 25.42 percent to 672,900 units.

 

However, both vehicle output and sales in April edged down almost 7 percent when compared to March, according to statistics.

 

Both accumulated vehicle output and sales expanded by one-third during the first four months of this year from a year earlier, mainly boosted by strong passenger vehicle demand.

 

January-April vehicle output and sales amounted to 2.47 million and 2.41 million units.

 

Zhu Yiping, a spokeswoman of the Beijing-based auto association, said China's vehicle output and sales for the whole of this year are expected to post a much faster growth than in 2005, according to the current momentum.

 

Last year, vehicle output and sales reached 5.71 million and 5.76 million units, up 12.56 percent and 13.54 percent respectively from 2004.

 

In the first four months of this year, sales of passenger vehicles cars, sport utility vehicles, multipurpose vehicles and mini vans almost surged by half to 1.72 million units, according to statistics.

 

In particular, car sales rocketed by three-fifths to 1.21 million units during the period.

 

Low-emission cars contributed more than half to brisk car sales.

 

Statistics indicated sales of cars with an engine capacity of between 1 and 1.6 liters more than doubled to 646,900 units between January and April this year.

 

"This is due to soaring oil prices, the government's removal of restrictions on low-emission cars and reductions in consumption taxes," Zhu said yesterday.

 

The central government in January issued a notice demanding local authorities scrap arbitrary limitations on the use of low-emission cars.

 

On April 1, consumption taxes on cars with an engine capacity of between 1 and 1.5 liters were slashed to 3 percent from 5 percent.

 

Domestic car brands remained in the fast lane during the first four months of this year.

 

Chery Automobile based in East China's Anhui Province sold 101,800 cars in the period, surging 97 percent from a year ago.

 

These strong sales made it the third biggest single manufacturer in the car arena after two joint ventures of General Motors and Volkswagen with China's top vehicle group Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.

 

Meanwhile, Chery's QQ micro car and Qiyun compact sedan remained on the list of the 10 best-selling models in China with deliveries of 47,900 and 37,800 units respectively.

 

A sales executive at Chery said the firm has lifted its 2006 sales target to 300,000 units from 281,000 units, encouraged by better-than-expected performance in the first four months.

 

Sales of Geely in Zhejiang Province shot up by 76 percent to 70,500 vehicles between January and April. It ranked No 7 on the best-selling list.

 

"More car buyers are choosing domestically made cars thanks to their improved quality and design as well as relatively low prices," Zhu told China Daily.

 

The commercial vehicle sector in China, including trucks and buses, saw a much milder growth than the passenger vehicle sector in the first four months of this year, according to the auto association.

 

Output and sales of commercial vehicles reached 718,000 and 687,800 units respectively in the period, an increase of 5.84 percent and 4.92 percent year-on-year.

 

(China Daily 05/16/2006 page10)