China car sales surpass US

China has overtaken the United States to become the world's largest auto market. Official figures released on Monday show the country sold more than 13.6 million vehicles in 2009. That's up more than 46 percent from the year before.

China's auto sales surged to reach record levels in 2009, underscoring China's importance to the global auto industry.

Official figures for 2009, were well ahead of the annual sales of 10 million cars and light trucks sold in the United States, which recorded its lowest level in 27 years.

The Chinese tally, which also includes heavy vehicles, is still higher than that of the United States, after deducting roughly 650,000 units of heavy trucks.

Industry observers attribute China's strong auto sales to government policy initiatives, which effectively lifted market sentiment and attracted buyers back to showrooms.

Stephen Dyer, principal of A.T. Kearney, China, said, "We've analyzed that there was significant pent-up demand in China from the second quarter of 2008. That is car sales were much lower than what we would have predicted based on continued economic growth. So 2009 sales to a large extent have been due to fulfilling that pent-up demand, very strong pent-up demand. Secondly we think due to the government incentives and those two factors will continue in 2010. We still believe there is continuing pent-up demand that will be fulfilled in 2010, albeit not to the extent of 2009."