BEIJING, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- China's automobile market saw a sluggish performance in September.
Cui Dongshu, secretary general with the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) believed that main reason for the weak sales last month is the "structural differentiation" in the domestic passenger vehicles market.
Sales of passenger vehicles in China reached 1.905 million units in September, down 13.2 percent year on year. From January to September, the growth rate of China's passenger vehicles market reached minus 0.6 percent, 2 percentage points lower than that of the growth rate from January to August, said Cui.
By contrast, sales of new energy passenger vehicles in China witnessed a strong performance in September, with growth rate for wholesales at 73 percent, Cui added.
He pointed out that the passenger vehicles market has seen an obvious trend of consumption upgrade, due to the country's cut in value added tax on imports as well as taxes on vehicles and auto parts.
According to statistics, sales of luxury vehicles increased by 13 percent in September, while those of traditional fuel vehicles of the domestic brands decreased by 17 percent. Sales of vehicles in joint venture (JV) brands fell 14 percent.
It is not difficult to see from the data that the momentum of new energy vehicles and luxury brands is very strong, while sales of traditional fuel vehicles, domestic brands and JV brands are not satisfying.
Industry insiders note that sales of new energy vehicles are likely to be a bright spot for the industry in the fourth quarter of this year, given the current market circumstances. (Edited by Ma Xin, maxin11@xinhua.org)
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