Gasgoo.com (Shanghai November 28) - Average sales and production growth rates in the Chinese automobile market have exceeded 20 percent from 2000 to 2010, China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei commented at the floor of the FISITA 2012 World Automotive Congress, according to a report appearing in auto.163.com today. That sales growth slowed down the following year. According to Mr. Miao, in the first ten months of 2012, year-on-year automobile production and sales growth rates totaled 4.56 percent and 3.56 percent, respectively. He expects total automobile sales to exceed 19 million vehicles this year.
Mr. Miao believes that current single digit growth rates in the Chinese automobile market are close to normal levels. He maintains that manufacturers cannot simply expect to release new products and see their sales increase, and instead must rely on making new technological innovations to expand their market share.