Shanghai (ZXZC)-According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), domestic auto sales reached 2.71m units in September with a growth of 5.7% year on year. The association once predicted in January this year that the annual auto sales would grow 5%. It’s also reported that CAAM stated the previous prediction could be hardly achieved. But Shi Jianhua, Vice General Secretary of CAAM believed that the domestic sales growth would reach at least 4% in 2017.

The 2017 auto market showed a pessimistic performance at the beginning of year, resulted by expiration of halving purchasing tax policy for small-size vehicles. Sales began to recover in June. It has been four consecutive months for domestic auto sales to grow till September. But CAAM still keeps prudent on the annual growth prediction.

The association said that domestic auto sales reached 2.71m units in September with  a year-on-year growth of 5.7% . The total sales in the previous nine months were 20.2m units, growing 4.5% year on year. In 2016, domestic auto market achieved an annual growth of 13.7% .

Analysts said that auto market shows robust performance recently with monthly growth reaching 4.5%, 6.2% and 5.3% in June to August respectively, owing to the steady economic growth and related stimulating measures. In the meantime, Toyota, Honda, Nissan and GM all released good sales performances this week. Ford will also release its September performance report later this week.

CAAM data shows that NEV sales grow 79.1% in the domestic market in September, with the total number reaching 398,000 units this year and growing 37.7% compared with 2016. It’s also revealed that NEV, including BEV and PHEV versions, may achieve its 700,000 units’ annual sales target this year. Besides, auto manufacturers should achieve NEV production scale required by Chinese government by the end of 2019, promoting trade on electric vehicles and launching of new BEV and PHEV models.