China Passenger Car Sales Jumped 55% in February

China’s passenger car sales climbed 55 percent from a year earlier in Feburary, despite a long national holiday, on strong demand for smaller cars and sport utility vehicles, an industry group reported Tuesday.

Sales of cars, commercial vehicles and SUVs rose to 942,900 units, while sales of all vehicles including trucks and buses rose 46 percent year-on-year to 1.21 million, according to the government-affiliated China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Unlike the U.S., China’s auto industry does not release monthly sales data adjusted for annual rates. U.S. auto sales rose 13 percent from a year earlier to an annualized rate of 10.4 million, according to Autodata Corp.

Tax cuts and subsidies for small-car purchases pushed demand sharply higher last year, with total vehicle sales leaping 45 percent to 13.6 million, making China the world’s biggest auto market, as American car sales languished.

China appears to have kept that lead so far in 2010, though February is traditionally a slow month for auto sales in both markets. The Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February kept China’s sales well below the 1.1 million passenger cars sold in January, when sales more than doubled from a year earlier.

A large share of the vehicles sold in China are small passenger cars and minivans used by farming families and small businesses — the focus of the tax cuts and other policies aimed at spurring sales of fuel-efficient vehicles.

In February, automakers sold 623,100 passenger sedans, up 46 percent from the year before. Sales of multi-purpose vehicles, mainly vans and minivans, jumped 72 percent to 25,200, while sales of SUVs more than doubled to 70,300, the auto industry association said.

SHANGHAI (AP)