The graph shows passenger and commercial vehicle sales in China from 2008 to 2018*. From January to August 2018, approximately 2.9 million commercial vehicles had been sold in China.
Vehicle sales in China – additional information
The automobile industry has been a major driving force in China’s economic momentum and despite slowing growth, the Chinese automobile industry is expected to continue fueling the economy. China was the world’s leading car producing country in 2015, producing approximately 21 million passenger cars and claiming a 24.1 percent share of total global vehicle production. However, while passenger car sales in Chinahave been skyrocketing since 2008, they have slowed somewhat in 2015. Specifically, the sale of minivans, multipurpose vehicles (MPV) and sedans have slowed, but the number of SUVs sold has increased. While more and more gas guzzling SUVs are being sold, the production of hybrid and electric cars and new energy vehicles is also on the rise and the government is promoting their use. However, these vehicles still compose a small share of annual car sales volumes and 2014 was a much better year than 2013 for new energy vehicle sales. As the number of privately owned vehicles in China continues to rise, so does the number of drivers. These results show that there are twice as many drivers with licenses than there are cars as well as indicating a large cohort of future car owners.
