Chinese auto sales at 1.15 million units in January 2011

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Although the Chinese car industry is still extremely hot, sales were down 9% over December 2010 figures. December was an extremely good month for Chinese car makers due to the end of favorable tax on small displacement vehicles – sales tax rose from 7.5% to 10% on the eve of December 31st in a bid to stabilize the fast growing Chinese car industry.

Whilst sales are down over December 2010′s sales, sales were actually up over January 2010′s sales by an amazing 17.9% which shows that the Chinese market still has plenty of game left in it and is expected to settle into a steady pattern of growth over the next few months, growth of 15% per year is expected in 2011, down from the 20% growth seen in 2010.

965,238 sedans, 46,100 MPVs and 140,935 SUVs were sold across China in January 2011 which show an increase of 12.6%, 27.7%, and 66.6% respectively.

The lapse in low taxes for small displacement vehicles is having the biggest effect on Chinese auto makers who largely benefited from the program with their economical small car ranges, BYD’s sales were down in January by 15%, Chery saw strong sales in January, as did Geely although sales at Geely were lower than Chery’s, GM and VW are still taking the biggest slice of the pie with GM selling over 268,000 vehicles in January and with Shanghai-VW selling over 100,000 vehicles.