China's passenger car sales maintained double-digit growth in February from a year earlier despite the country's heavy snowstorms, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said last Friday.
Domestic car makers sold a combined 488,900 units last month including sedans, sport-utility vehicles and multi-purpose vehicles, an increase of 17.05 percent from a year earlier, the Beijing-based association said. But the February level was 26.15 percent lower than January.
"February's retail sales failed to meet earlier expectation as high oil prices and the soaring consumer price index delayed people's purchases," said Rao Da, secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association in Shanghai.
The price of crude oil has topped 5,000 yuan (US$704) per ton on the global market, causing concerns that the fuel prices in China will also rise significantly soon, Rao said.
Sales were boosted by sedans, which climbed 20 percent to 357,100 units last month from a year earlier. SUVs also remained popular with a 47 percent growth to 28,300 units compared to a 12.7 percent increase for MPVs to 15,400 units during the same period. More than 88,000 crossovers were sold.
Shanghai Volkswagen was the best seller last month with retail sales of 42,620 units in China, followed by Shanghai General Motors' 36,387 units and FAW VW's 24,859 units.
CAAM said passenger car sales totaled 1.15 million units for the first two months with an increase of 18.6 percent from a year earlier, below the 20 percent whole-year forecast.
China's worst snowstorms for 50 years, which began at the end of January, caused delivery delays and production suspensions.
However, most makers, including Shanghai Volkswagen and Dongfeng Nissan, worked additional shifts last month to make up for the loss.
The top 10 best-selling car models last month were Santana, Excelle, Camry, Corolla, Chery QQ, Elantra, Xiali, F3, Passat Lingyu and Lova, which saw combined sales of 121,400 units, accounting for 34 percent of the total sales.