China auto market rescues multinational auto company

BEIJING, January 10 (Xinhua) China Auto market Rescue multinational car company reporter Zhang in recent days, GM, Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen and other multinational car companies, have announced the 2009 performance in China.　　In stark contrast to the global success of other markets, multinational car companies have achieved double-digit growth in China last year, or even more than 60% per cent. As foreign investors, many multinational car companies share a strong growth in China's auto market dividend. The world's big car giants are far more profitable in China than the global average, and some are even making up for other losses in the Chinese market.　　The rapid growth of China's auto market has become a key factor in rescuing some multinational car companies. GM, the US car company, has sold only 2.08 million cars in the United States last year after a massive collapse in sales in China, down 30.1% from 900,000 a year earlier. GM's sales in Europe also fell.　　With GM's two joint ventures in Shanghai and SAIC-GM Wuling, GM sold 1.826 million cars in China last year, up 66.9% per cent year-on-year, and topped the list for the 5th consecutive year in a multinational auto company. Ford, another American car giant, escaped bankruptcy but was affected by the financial crisis, and global sales continued to slide last year. In the Chinese market, Ford has achieved a decent performance. Graziano, chairman and chief executive of Ford Motor (China) Co., told Xinhua that in the past year, Ford Motor sales in China reached a record 440,619 vehicles, up 44%. China has become the world's fastest-growing market for Ford.　　Ford's China passenger car joint venture, Changan Ford Mazda, sold up to 315,791 vehicles in 2009, up 55%. Volkswagen Group, headquartered in Germany, is expected to reach 7 million vehicles a year in 2009, up 10% from 6.23 million last year. But in the biggest market for VW in China, sales rose 36.7% to a record 1.4 million vehicles.　　The VW brand and Audi brand have both maintained growth of more than 30% and the Skoda brand has doubled. Peugeot Citroen's joint venture in China last year sold 270,000 cars, an increase of 52% per cent over the past few years in China, a sluggish growth in performance.　　Luxury car brands, such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW, also hit record highs in 2009 at home. Japanese car company performance slightly inferior to Toyota, Nissan, honda three Japanese car companies, in China last year, although the overall performance is inferior to the European and American car companies, but also achieved more than 20% growth.　　The best performance is Nissan, Nissan's investment company in China Dongfeng Limited last year, car sales of 924,000 vehicles, an increase of 30%. Toyota's global sales fell sharply in 2009, with nearly 9 million vehicles expected to fall to around 7 million from 2008. But sales in the Chinese market rose 21% per cent year-on-year, to record 70.9Million cars.　　Honda (China) and two joint ventures in China, Guangzhou Honda and Dongfeng Honda, last year sold nearly 580,000 vehicles, up 23% per cent year-on-year. South Korea Hyundai and the Asian car last year in China, the results of a rapid rise in sales to record the highest, reached 800,000 vehicles.　　Beijing Hyundai sold 570,000 vehicles, a surge of 93.6% per cent year-on-year.　　GM's "explosive" growth in the Chinese market has benefited from China's aggressive policy of boosting domestic demand and the new strategy of GM China, according to Kevin Wale, the president and general manager of General Motors China.　　Many multinational car companies are very optimistic about this year and even the next few years of China's auto market, have expanded investment in China, accelerate the introduction of new technologies and new products. Vahland, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group (China), said that in the new year, VW would introduce 7 new models for domestic production and start producing the latest 7-speed DSG dual-clutch automatic transmissions in Dalian.　　VW will achieve its goal of reducing the average fuel consumption and emissions by 20% in the full range of vehicles by 2010.　　Graziano said that Ford will continue to provide Chinese consumers with first-class product quality, reliable security, economic fuel consumption, advanced technology and dynamic design of the Ford products, and this year launched a series of advanced green energy-saving technology. China Automotive Technology Research Center chief expert Epcot and 10th to reporters that 2009 China's auto production and sales of more than 13.5 million vehicles, the first time to become the world's largest automobile production and marketing. He expects more than 15 million Chinese cars to be in production in 2010, and multinationals will continue to benefit from it.