Three years ago(2006), China zoomed past Japan to become the world's No. 2 vehicle market.
Now it looks poised to pass up the United States to be the biggest and this growth is spurring demand for automotive parts, services, and after-care products. China is presently capable of manufacturing a complete line of automobile products and large automotive enterprises. Major domestic firms include the China First Automobile Group Corp. (FAW), Dongfeng Motor Corp. (DMC) and Shanghai Automotive Industry (Group) Corp. (SAIC).
China had a total of 6322 automotive enterprises by the end of November 2006. The total output value of the automotive sector for the first three quarters of 2006 was US$143 billion. Since 2002, 50% of all motor vehicles (cars and trucks) in China had been purchased by individuals. As incomes increase the high annual growth rate of private ownership is expected to accelerate.

Historic Data
|Automobile production by year |
|Year |Production (in million units) |
|1992 |1.0 |
|1999 |1.2 |
|2000 |2.07 |
|2001 |2.33 |
|2002 |3.25 |
|2003 |4.44 |
|2004 |5.07 |
|2005 |5.71 |
|2006 |7.28 |
|2007 |8.88 |
|2008 |9.35 |

Domestic manufacturers Dongfeng Motor Corporation Great Wall Motors Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation Chang'an Motors