China auto sales up 75.8% in October, GM China doubles sales

China’s passenger car sales were up a whopping 75.8 percent in October, as compared to the same period an year earlier. The explosive grown in auto sales for the past couple of months comes as government incentives continued to bring customers into showrooms.

According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, a total of 946,000 were sold in October, up from 538,500 units sold a year earlier. Sales reached 1.02 million units in September.

General Motors announced that it more than doubled its sales in China to 166,911 vehicles last month, continuing its string of monthly sales records since the beginning of 2009.

FoMoCo also said that its sales were up 80 percent from an year earlier with a total of 20,027 units sold.

Analysts expect sales to slow down once the government incentive expires by the end of this year. The government incentives offers subsidies and cuts the sales tax in half on vehicles powered by engines less than 1.6 liters.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Reuters