China's auto market grew by double digits in August as carmakers tapped the sales momentum from January to July.
Sales of passenger cars and commercial vehicles rose 10.3 percent in August from a year earlier to 1.65 million units. On a monthly basis, sales grew 8.7 percent as the extremely hot weather dampened sales in July, according to the data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers yesterday.
The association said the sales gain drove a sustained upward trend as the combined sales so far this year have hit 13.95 million units by August, up 11.8 percent from a year earlier, although it was 0.2 percentage point lower than the figure for the January-July period.
Sales of sport-utility vehicles surged 46.1 percent last month and were the key driver in the passenger car market which rose 11 percent in August from a year earlier. Sales of sedans rose 4 percent.
Chinese brands achieved a 15.8 percent year-on-year rise in passenger car sales last month and captured a 38 percent share of this market, up 2.8 percentage points from July.
Meanwhile, foreign carmakers saw mixed results. Sales of German, American, French and South Korean brands all gained more than 10 percent while Japanese brands saw sales fall 9.3 percent as the Diaoyu Islands dispute lingered on.
