OREANDA-NEWS. Sales of passenger cars in China grew by 6.4% to 1,695,500 units by the end of September 2014, according to the Chinese Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). Thus, China has once again become a world leader in car sales, by overtaking the United States, where in the last month it was sold 1,245,786 cars and off-road vehicles (9%). For the first nine months of 2014 the Chinese car market grew by 10.2% to 14,155,000 vehicles, by remaining the largest in the world.

Volkswagen and its joint ventures in September increased sales by 6.7% to about 320 thousand cars. Sales of passenger cars of General Motors in China were a record 319,936 vehicles - it is more by 15.2% than the year before. Thus, GM establishes its own record of sales in the Chinese market for the second month in a row.

According to CAAM forecast, in 2014 the Chinese car market will grow by about 4.6% with respect to a record of the last year, when it was sold 17, 928 900 passenger cars. It, in particular, will contribute the ongoing exodus of population to the big cities. At the same time, the growth in car sales may restrain the slowdown of growth rates of Chinese economy, as well as the official policy of the Chinese mega-cities to restrict registrations of new cars in the fight against environmental pollution and traffic jams.