China is now the world’s biggest car market, 2009 cars sales estimated at 10.3 million units

China has now toppled the US from the no.1 spot in terms of annual car sales

China has inched ahead of the US during the first half of this year, becoming the world’s largest car market in the process. While official sales data will only be available next week, January-June 2009 car sales figures in China are estimated to be at around six million units and it’s expected that sales figure for the full year will be at 10-10.3 million units.

In the US, January-June 2009 car sales figures stood at 4.8 million units – a massive decline of 35% over last year’s figures. The downward trend is expected to continue and analysts in the US predict that China will probably continue to stay ahead of the US in terms of car sales from now on.

Another statistic that provides a glimpse at how much of a car market powerhouse China really is, is that no less than 89 new car models were launched in China during the first six months of this year. Yes, that’s an average of one new car being launched every two days, of which 73 were cars, nine were SUVs, six were MPVs and one was a crossover.

Of course, 89 new cars being launched in six months may not really be much of a good thing. Automotive experts and analysts in China expect a lot of consolidation to happen in the Chinese car market over the next few years, as the market matures.