REPORT: China passes U.S. in auto sales
Most of the world has been knee deep in a wicked recession for quite a while, and auto sales have been hit especially hard. Here in the U.S., the numbers have been abysmal, as the first half of the year saw only 4.8 million sales through June. China, on the other hand, is running away with the overall sales lead, as the
The big winner in the market so far this year appears to be General Motors. The struggling Detroit, MI-based automaker has seen its China sales jump by 38% this year; while its U.S. sales have tanked. Industry analysts are predicting that the overall market for passenger cars in China will be between 10 and 11 million units.
Most experts weren't expecting China to pass the U.S. in overall sales for another decade, but the crumbling American auto industry has expedited the power shift, at least for the short term. With 1.3 billion people and a healthy economy, this day was destined to come.
[Source: The Associated Press via Google]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Dustin 5:03PM (7/09/2009)
I like how there's a map showing the relative sizes of the countries, as if we are immediately defensive about why more cars are sold in China. Don't forget to throw Hawaii and Alaska on there... haha
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pmalik 5:06PM (7/09/2009)
err that map isn't to scale...
http://www.actionla.org/Reports/JourneytoHome/Maps/map-china-us_superimposed.jpg
Iwa 5:10PM (7/09/2009)
Actually there's a debate on which country is larger due to the dispute of ownership of Taiwan. Without Taiwan, the US is slightly larger than China. With Taiwan, China is larger.
Vizel 5:15PM (7/09/2009)
as China have no political authority over island of Taiwan, it's a separate country.
Iwa 5:33PM (7/09/2009)
"as China have no political authority over island of Taiwan, it's a separate country."
That's where the debate lies, China says they do. Taiwan says they don't. Complicating matters is that Taiwan has limited international recognition as independent country, they haven't been recognized as such by the UN for thirty-eight years.
asng15 6:05PM (7/09/2009)
ahh You cant stop that, they gona continue to dominate in all the marketing area
here in Europe , every company is trying to squeeze into chinese market.
Fiziks 7:10PM (7/09/2009)
China is bigger than the US, as recognized anywhere in the world, except in the US, of course. The size of Taiwan doesn't matter, it's actually the Aksai Chin area (in the Indian border) that makes the difference between being bigger or smaller than the US.
Iwa 8:16PM (7/09/2009)
"China is bigger than the US, as recognized anywhere in the world, except in the US, of course. The size of Taiwan doesn't matter, it's actually the Aksai Chin area (in the Indian border) that makes the difference between being bigger or smaller than the US."
That must be why the UN recognizes the US officially as 3,717,813 sq mi and China as 3,705,407 sq mi. You're correct in that the Aksai Chin area is another disputed area of China which is 14,380 sq mi that puts China over the US. However, this disputed area is not much larger than Taiwan at 13, 972 sq mi.
Judy Zik 12:27AM (7/10/2009)
These are all technicallities. Taiwan considers itself a part of China. They just don't recognize Communist rule. China is bigger than the US and Canada is bigger than China for those of you who are geographically challenged.
This is a blip on the radar. With car sales running half what they were before the recession this wont last long. America will regain the crown when the economy improves but eventually China and India will likely be the top two markets. God helps us all if they don't make better vehicle choices than we have.
jv2k 7:40AM (7/10/2009)
I like how you believe that image was actually to scale.
joe23521 10:33AM (7/10/2009)
That map is nowhere near to being to scale.
I believe China is larger when only considering land mass, but USA is slightly bigger if all bodies of water are also taken into account. But it's generally accepted that China is the third largest country and USA the fourth, behind Russia and Canada. I think Australia is fifth and Brazil sixth?
the4thheat 3:08AM (7/12/2009)
OK it's all rather pointless which country is physically larger when much of the land that makes up those huge numbers in both countries is fairly unusable and undeveloped stuff like deserts and arctic tundra or whatever.
And anyway I'm pretty sure China passed us in auto sales like months and months ago when people here realized the economy was totally screwed and stopped buying cars...just because someone wrote a report about it doesn't make it news again.
I will say though that when I was a kid I always thought that China and America were almost the exact same size (on maps) and it's nice to find out that their sizes really are almost the same.
Pete 5:05PM (7/09/2009)
At least they are buying American....
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Zoran 5:21PM (7/09/2009)
... from Korea and Germany.
Aznauto 6:16PM (7/09/2009)
No one in China buys products made in America which are typically bad in quality and expensive, Coke, Buick etc products sold there are built in China. There is reason why China is manufacturing power house where as America can't even built competitive car. When is the last time you bought anything made in America. Hopefully America military realizes this as well and Lockheed and Boeing start building in China.
BrianFL 6:32PM (7/09/2009)
@Aznauto
Oh yeah the chinese are models for manufacturing. examples. lead paint, drywall
They buy from other countries because they can get it cheaper. Keep in mind that Chinese income is still far less than ours.
William 3:13PM (7/10/2009)
Auznato - plenty of great cars are built in America, like the Camry and the Taurus. Their quality is fine. We don't tend to export them to China because of relative labor costs.
http://www.cars.com/go/advice/Story.jsp?section=top&subject=ami&story=amMade0709
davew 7:46PM (7/09/2009)
Congratulations fellow autoblogers we have a new troll. Meet Aznauto, a quick look through his past comments will revel he has a Shanghai fetish and is a staunch Asian supremacist. I’ve seen them before on Youtube. English speaking sinophiles that roam English speaking websites and go mental at the faintest hint of any criticism of China. This should be fun, but he might make us miss Sea Urchin. BTW, those American branded cars still send a majority of profits back to the U.S., just like the Toyota and BMW plants here and the 8% growth in the Chinese economy is unsustainable. We had that in the 20’s and the Japanese in the 80’s we all know what happened in those cases.
Aznauto 8:28PM (7/09/2009)
davew,
Just pointing out the facts and seperating out the BS, as for profits going back to the mainland. That would explain why GM is spending billions (4+bill) on new plants in China and design studio the only investment in US is 600 million dollars on small car plant in Michigan in upcoming years.
Cougs 10:21AM (7/10/2009)
@aznauto
The reason China has become a powerhouse is because of other countries recognizing Chinese labor was cheap as dirt. In the long run, as the cost of living increases and employees want higher wages, manufacturing will move to other low-income countries like India. This is just the way economics works. The best thing for China is to continue to diversify as it is doing and it will build a long-term growth economy.
At the same time, I would recommend not bashing the U.S. - Americans buy chinese manufactured products, but not one of the 100+ Chinese auto-manufacturers is selling anything in the U.S. yet. In addition, the companies that most people purchase from here are U.S., Canadian, European or Japanese based. Other than Ming's Dragon down the street (which is owned by a Chinese-American) most folks can't tell you one Chinese owned "company".
Sooooo, until one of the many knock-off brands makes its way over here and can start innovating and making a name for itself outside of the borders of China...well, you know what to do.