Chinese car sales surged 81.68 per cent year on year in August amid signs that tax cuts and subsidies from Beijing have engineered a broad-based recovery in consumer confidence that could propel China to record vehicle sales of 12m this year, analysts said.
Months of stronger than expected growth in auto sales look likely to catapult China to top position as the world's biggest auto market in 2009, ahead of the US.
Passenger car sales in the US will remain higher than China's, but in terms of total light vehicles – including mini commercial vehicles used partly as passenger cars in China – the Asian country looks set to pull ahead of the US for the first time this year.