China's passenger vehicle sales rise 24% for the year

China's passenger vehicle sales rose to 3.54 million in the first seven months this year, up 23.7% from the same period last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, Xinhua reported (in Chinese). Sales of sedans jumped 26.6% to 2.64 million, sports utility vehicles soared 46.4% to 187,600, while multi-purpose vehicles went up 17.8% to 124,400. The top ten companies by number of cars sold during the period are Faw-VW, Shanghai VW, Shanghai GM, Chery, Dongfeng Nissan, Guangzhou Honda, Faw-Toyota, Geely, Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen and Tianjin Faw. Sales by the top ten accounted for 64% of the total, cars.