SAIC, FAW and Dongfeng capture 50% of Chinese car market

Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC), China First Automobile Works Group Corp. (FAW Group) and Dongfeng Motor Corp. (DFM), China’s top three automakers in terms of sales volume, sold a total of 4.57 million automobiles last year, taking 48.7% of the country’s market in 2008, up 1.8% year-on-year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said. SGMW and Shanghai Volkswagen, two joint ventures of SAIC, sold the most passenger vehicles and the second largest number of sedans, respectively. The top sedan seller was FAW-Volkswagen, a joint venture between the FAW Group and German automaker Volkswagen AG, which sold 499,000 sedans in 2008. Both the sales volume and sales revenue hit a new high for the FAW Group since it was established in 1953. Among the three automakers, Dongfeng witnessed the fastest growth and was the only Chinese carmaker to accomplish its annual sales goals, which were set at the beginning of 2008. Its sales volume rose 16.12% year-on-year to 1.32 million units in 2008. (January 29/ February 2, 2009)