China's Against Hybrids

There's no doubt China is one of the largest auto markets even during recession times and carmakers rushed to move their operations there in an effort to take the lion's share in a very crowded environment. Leaving the rest of the industry aside, the green segment, meaning electric cars and hybrids, are still playing a key role everywhere, but it seems like things are slightly different in China.

An article posted by FavStocks points out that hybrid sales in China are evolving incredibly slow, although some would say they're not evolving at all. In fact, they are currently at such a low level that companies which invested in the Chinese green sector are experiencing massive declining sales.

Honda Civic is, as the source hinted, the best example in this case. The Japanese manufacturer sold a total of 300 hybrids last year, while sales in the first 11 months of this year have totaled 63 units. Disappointing or not, this can really be regarded as a threat to foreign automakers who are continuously looking into ways to promote their green cars in the country.

In fact, while green models are practically non-existent, other vehicles are selling like hot cakes. Lamborghini for example hopes to grow bigger in China and intends to open more and more dealerships in the country, as the interest in its models seems to increase day by day.

“We have delivered 178 super-sports cars to Chinese customers in the first three quarters, with more than 200 percent growth over the past year,” Stephan Winkelmann, president and CEO of Lamborghini, told the China Daily in an interview. “This momentum will make it easy to achieve our 200-unit sales target in 2010.”