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Beijing, July 27 (IANS) China’s auto sales are likely to hit 20 million units in 2012 if the economy picks up momentum in the second half, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said. Total vehicle sales in China will expand by around 8 percent from a year earlier, CAAM said in a report Thursday. For the entire year, sales of passenger cars will rise 11 percent to 16 million vehicles, while commercial vehicle sales will drop 3 percent to 3.9 million units, reported Xinhua. The country will import 1.2 million vehicles, up 15 percent, and export 1.05 million vehicles, up 24 percent. Taking imports and exports into consideration, the country’s auto sales would reach 20.15 million vehicles, the report said.

Chinese domestic auto brands: Chery (奇瑞), Geely (吉利), BYD (比亚迪), Hongqi (红旗), Hafei (哈飞) and Lifan (力帆)

Chery Automobile is an automobile manufacturing company headquartered in Wuhu (芜湖), Anhui province (安徽), China. The company was founded in 1997 and is a state-owned corporation. The 7th-largest China-based automaker measured by 2011 output, it produced around 600,000 units in that year. Geely is a Chinese automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Hangzhou (杭州), China. It sells vehicles under four brand names: Emgrand, Englon, Geely and Gleagle. Geely also take charge of Volvo Cars, which it acquired from Ford for US$1.8 billion in 2010. Hongqi (红旗) is a luxury division of FAW Car Company. Its production, first manufactured in 1958, was 1st domestically produced Chinese passenger vehicles. BYD (比亚迪) is a Chinese manufacturer of automobiles and rechargeable batteries located in Shenzhen (深圳), Guangdong (广东) province.

International auto brands in China：Volkswagen (大众), Toyata (丰田), Hyundai (现代)

Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and the also the original biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group with its sub-brands: the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Ducati, Lamborghini, SEAT, Porsche, Giugiaro, 19.9% of Suzuki and Skoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania. Toyota Motor Corporation is a international automaker based in Tokyo (东京), Aichi, Japan. In 2010, it became the world’s largest automobile manufacturer by production. Currently, Toyota is the 9th largest company in the world by revenue. In July 2012, the company reported that it had manufactured its 200 millionth cars. Hyundai (现代) is a multinational company headquartered in Seoul and one of the largest South Korean chaebol. It was originally founded by Chung Ju-yung in 1947 as a construction firm.

China’ automotive sales volume in 2012

Auto sales grew 2.9 percent in the first half of 2012 from a year earlier to 9.6 million vehicles, the CAAM data showed. It indicates obvious signs of slowing compared with the 3.4-percent gain registered in the same period last year and a 48-percent surge in the first half of 2010, the CAAM said. A slowdown in auto sales echoes signs of slowing growth in the wider economy. As the world’s largest auto producer and market, China is now under the shadow of clearly slow economic growth. As a combined result of sluggish external demands, government control on the property sector and the self-initiated structural shift toward domestic demand, China GDP growth slowed to 7.6 percent in the second quarter, the lowest quarterly expansion in three years.