China is now largest car manufacturer

With the country announcing last month that the sales and production of new cars has already hit the 12 million mark this year, China has become the world’s biggest car producer.  And according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, this trend will continue with more than 13 million cars estimated for production and sale by the end of 2009.

The China market showed no signs of recession, with sales booming due to a combination of the Chinese government’s tax incentives on cars under 1.6-litres and a scrappage scheme similar to the ones run in the US and UK (where saying that they were affected by the poor state of the global economy is a huge understatement!). MG owner SAIC is China’s biggest car maker, selling an impressive 2.4 million cars this year.

The only fly in China’s car-making ointment is their relatively poor export sales, with an insignificant 745 new cars being sold in Europe in 2009, and suffering a similar fate in the US. This is primarily down to the cars not meeting European safety standards and environmental issues, but this is hopefully going to be addressed by several manufacturers using more modern factories in Turkey primarily building for the EU market.

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