Area Development
Vehicle sales in China jumped 78 percent over the same month in 2008, according to the Associated Press (AP), with passenger car sales climbing 84 percent to 1.02 million units. China currently leads the world in auto sales for 2009 with 9.66 million units; the United States in second place at 7.85 million units. GM saw total sales in China for the first nine months of 2009 rise 55 percent to nearly 1.3 million vehicles, while Ford's sales rose 32 percent to 316,639 vehicles. AP quotes GM CEO Fritz Henderson as saying the company expects its sales in China to continue to enjoy very strong growth. "The China market has benefited from economic stimulus that has generated primary demand," he said to reporters in Shanghai. "We see substantial opportunities in product-driven, competition-driven growth."