China becomes third largest producer of autos in the world

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From Xinhua via India Economic Times:

BEIJING: China is ranked third in the world in production of motor vehicles after Japan and the US.

China’s automakers produced 8.88 million motor vehicles last year, a 22.02 per cent rise from a year earlier, with 6.38 million passenger vehicles and 2.5 million commercial vehicles.

Total vehicle sales shot up 21.84 per cent year-on-year to 8.79 million units in 2007, a two fold rise over 2003, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said.

China has the worlds second largest car market after the US’.

Home grown models accounted for more than 95 per cent of commercial vehicles and 40 per cent of passenger vehicles on the domestic market, CAAM Vice-Chairman Dong Yang said.

Dong described as “impressive” progress made by China in developing independently owned brands.

Sedans at 4.73 million units accounted for 53.76 per cent of the total vehicle sales with about 1.24 million of them being indigenous models, official Xinhua news agency said.

Top 10 producers of motor vehicles, including Germany, South Korea, France, Brazil, Spain, Canada and India made 55.3 million vehicles, accounting for 76 per cent of the total global production of 73.1 million units.