The top three Chinese automakers in terms of sales volume took 48.7 percent of the domestic market in 2008, up 1.8 percentage points year-on-year, China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said in a report.

Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), China First Automobile Works Group Corporation (FAW Group) and Dongfeng Motor Corporation (DFM) sold a total of 4.57 million automobiles last year, according to the CAAM.

SAIC's sales volume rose 10.72 percent year-on-year to 1.72 million units in 2008. Its growth rate was 3 percentage points higher than the nation's average. SGMW and Shanghai Volkswagen, two joint ventures of the SAIC, sold the most passenger vehicles and the second largest amount of sedans, respectively.

The top sedan seller was FAW-Volkswagen, a joint venture between the FAW Group and German automaker Volkswagen, which sold 499,000 sedans in 2008. The FAW Group sold more than 1.53 million vehicles in total, up 6.75 percent. Its sales revenue is estimated to grow by 8.8 percent to 218 billion yuan (318 billion U.S. dollars) in 2008.

Both the sales volume and sales revenue hit a new high for the FAW Group since it was established in 1953.

Among the three automakers, the DFM witnessed the fastest growth. Its sales volume rose 16.12 percent year-on-year to 1.32 million units in 2008, which surpassed the country's average growth rate by 9.42 percentage points.

The DFM's sales revenue is estimated to increase by 15 percent to 190 billion yuan in 2008.

(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2009)