Strong Chinese market to inspire German auto industry

BERLIN -- China was expected to be the world's largest car market in 2013 and 2014, said German auto industry association VDA on Tuesday, adding that the growing market could inspire the German auto industry.

For the full year of 2013, world growth of passenger car sales would be driven by two major markets, China and the US, said VDA president Matthias Wissmann.

Sales in China in 2013 were estimated to rose by 21 percent to 16 million units, making China the world's largest car market. Sales in the US Market would increase by 7 percent to 15.5 million units.

For the year of 2014, VDA forecast auto sales worldwide to increase by 3 percent to 74.7 million units. In China, 17.1 million passenger cars were expected to be sold, more than twice as it was in 2009. In the US market, a volume of 15.9 million units would be consumed.

According to VDA, China's share of the world passenger car market would rise to 23 percent in 2014, while the share of the US was set to be over 21 percent.

"The German manufacturers could go along with the high rate of growth in China," said Wissmann.

Volkswagen has decided to set up in China seven of its ten planned new factories worldwide. Data from VDA showed that German carmakers were expected to produce mainly abroad in 2014. Of the 14.7 million cars forecast to be produced worldwide, only 5.47 million would be made in Germany.

Domestically in Germany, some 3 million new cars were expected to be registered in 2014, slightly above the level in 2013. "However, this applies only when the conditions are right and the currently visible recovery continues," said Wissmann.