Auto giants benefit from China car recovery

Photo taken on July 12, 2020 shows the display area of FAW-Volkswagen during the 17th China Changchun International Automobile Expo in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province. (Photo by Yan Linyun/Xinhua)

Volkswagen rose more than 40 percent from a mid-March low in the Chinese market. General Motors Co was up more than 60 percent over that span, while Tesla sold 11,014 autos in July in China, as the best seller of pure electric vehicles.

BEIJING, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Car sales in China accelerated in July, which provided support to the world's auto giants, Bloomberg said in a recent report.

Retail sales of sedans, SUVs, minivans and multipurpose vehicles increased 7.9 percent in July year-on-year to 1.63 million units.

Workers check vehicles at a workshop of FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Co., Ltd. in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, Aug. 10, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Nan)

Volkswagen, a world leading car maker, rose more than 40 percent from a mid-March low in the Chinese market. General Motors Co was up more than 60 percent over that span, while Tesla sold 11,014 autos in July in China, as the best seller of pure electric vehicles.

Steve Man, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence in Hong Kong, expected that German and Japanese brands will benefit the most from the auto market improvement, but GM and Ford Motor Co. may get hit because of the escalating China-U.S. tensions. ■