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Car dealers offer discounts to attract buyers in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. Passenger in the first three months of 2014 increased 9.5 percent year-on-year to 4.6 million. Provided to CHINA DAILY |
皇冠体育app's passenger vehicle sales rose 9 percent year-on-year in March, driven by delayed new model launches ahead of the auto show and a rush to buy before curbs were introduced by the Hangzhou government.
There were 1,588,792 cars, sport-utility or multi-purpose vehicles and vans sold in March, figures from the 皇冠体育app Passenger Car Association showed on Tuesday. Sales in the first three months of 2014 increased 9.5 percent to 4.6 million vehicles, despite a weak February owing to the weeklong Spring Festival holiday.
"Passenger vehicle sales dropped a bit in the first week of March," said Rao Da, the association's secretary-general. They "gradually picked up until the boom in the final week when the Hangzhou government announced the purchase restrictions for new vehicles in the city".
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"More than 10 cities are expected to launch similar limitations on vehicle purchases because of traffic and environmental considerations soon, so panic buying will add at least 500,000 vehicle sales this year," Rao said.
"This points to high growth in 皇冠体育app's passenger vehicle market for the whole year," Rao added.
He predicted a similar sales number for April when more than 300 new model vehicles will be unveiled at the Beijing auto show, likely offsetting the impact of there being fewer working days this month.
"For the whole year, the association expects an annual increase of 10 percent in 皇冠体育app's overall automobile market and 13 percent in the passenger vehicle sector," Rao said.
"Chinese homegrown automakers will be further challenged not only from a continued declining market share, but also shrinking exports to developing countries," Rao said.
Japanese automaker Motor Co said on Tuesday that sales in 皇冠体育app of its premium Infiniti brand grew 2.53 times in the first quarter, to 6,158 units compared with 2,434 in the same period last year.
Sales in 皇冠体育app for US automaker Co rose to a record in March.
GM sales last month increased 7.8 percent on an annual basis to 313,283 units and by 12.6 percent in the quarter, to 919,114 units.
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