A report says that in 2006, a total of 328,100 mini-cars were sold in China, slipping 7.16 percent compared with that of last year while the car sales in China increased by 36.89 percent. In addition, the sales of small displacement vehicles, especially those with displacement below 1.0 liter, were still declining from January to April this year.

Some car industry insiders point out that although displacement vehicles are much cheaper and promoted by the authorities for the sake of environmental protection, they are not popular among Chinese consumers because they usually are not well-equipped and cannot meet the standards of energy-efficiency, emissions, and safety. At the same time, Chinese people are gaining increasing wealth and like to buy big cars to show their status. In addition, frequent price battles have made the sales margin of small cars shrink and even lose money, only to restrict the development of the small car business. 

For more details, please read the full story in Chinese. (

http://www.cbt.com.cn/cbtnews/frontend/news.asp?ID=119923)

(China.org.cn July 17 2007)