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China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: Vehicle sales hit record high in August of 2009

Domestic passenger vehicle sales in China hit a new record high in August of 2009, nearly doubling over last year, far beyond industry expectations […]

Domestic passenger vehicle sales in China hit a new record high in August of 2009, nearly doubling over last year, far beyond industry expectations.

Domestic passenger vehicle sales in China hit a new record high in August/2009 (source: China Daily)
Domestic passenger vehicle sales in China hit a new record high in August/2009 (source: China Daily)

“The booming sales in August has surpassed even the boldest prediction in the industry, as previously sales in August are normally the weakest in the whole year,” said Cui Dongshu, deputy secretary-general of the National Passenger Car Information Exchange Association.

According to the association, passenger vehicle sales, including cars, multi-purpose vehicles (MPV), and sports-utility vehicles (SUV) soared to 849,376 units in August, up 94.7 percent year-on-year.

Nearly 621,110 sedans were sold during the period, an increase of 84.2 percent from a year ago, while MPV and SUV sales grew 52.6 percent and 119 percent to 19,241 and 62,467 units respectively.

The domestic sales miracle should not be attributed alone to the government stimulus package, but also to the robust natural demand, which reflects China’s rapid growing economy, Cui said.

He also predicted the market would continue to record brisk sales this month, estimated at around 870,000 units on a conservative basis. For the full year passenger car sales are expected to reach 9.6 million units.

Chen Bin, chief director of the industry coordination department of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, said at a forum recently that automobile sales in China may grow 28 percent over last year to reach 12 million this year.

By Itamar Medeiros

Originally from Brazil, Itamar Medeiros currently lives in Germany, where he works as VP of Design Strategy at SAP, where he leads the design vision for the entire Human Capital Management product line, ensuring cohesive product narratives and establishing best practices.

Working in the Information Technology industry since 1998, Itamar has helped truly global companies in multiple continents create great user experience through advocating Design and Innovation principles. Itamar has also served as a juror for prestigious design competitions and lectured on design topics at universities worldwide.

During his 7 years in China, he promoted the User Experience Design discipline as User Experience Manager at Autodesk and Local Coordinator of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) in Shanghai.

Itamar holds a MA in Design Practice from Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK), for which he received a Distinction Award for his thesis Creating Innovative Design Software Solutions within Collaborative/Distributed Design Environments.

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