As a barometer for the automotive market across China, Guangdong province, China imported 83,000 vehicles valued in total at $3.29 billion in 2009, down 1.5 and 0.6 percent, respectively, from a year ago, according to statistics from Guangdong Customs.
Nevertheless, the rise in vehicle imports that started from the second half of 2009 is expected to continue in 2010 as the entire Chinese vehicle market shows huge growth potential despite the declines in the first half due to the worldwide financial slowdown.
The province’s imports of passenger vehicles with a displacement between 1.5 and 3.0 liters totaled 55,000 units last year, a year on year increase of 26.6 percent, accounting for 66.3 percent of the total, while imports of vehicles of 3L and above declined 40.8 percent to 21,000 units, making up 25.4 percent of the total. In 2009, three international luxury brands, Lincoln, Cadillac and Land Rover, saw their sales decline 9.2 percent, 8.3 percent and 8.3 percent respectively across the entire country, while Benz and BMW reported big gains in imported car sales as a result of having expanding their lineup of imported models with displacements of less than 3.0 liters.
A spokesperson for Volkswagen Import said that automakers are increasingly inclined to promote small displacement cars in the country given the increased consumption tax on imported vehicles as the structure of the market for vehicle imports has changed despite the continued rise in sales numbers through 2009.
Volkswagen, for example, introduced the Scirocco 1.4 TSI last April and plans to roll out the Scirocco 2.0 TSI this month.
