Shanghai Auto Show: Event celebrates China overtaking U.S. in sales

SHANGHAI, China -- The Shanghai Auto Show, once a venue for the West to show off its cars to a country still relying on bicycles, is now a showcase for China's own industry as it overtakes the United States in market size.
triggerAd(1,PaginationPage,9);
From electric vehicles to the biggest gas-guzzling SUVs, China's automakers are maneuvering to upstage their global rivals in the only major market that is showing resilience during the global financial crisis.
"I have only three words: excited, excited, excited!" Zhang Xiaoyu, chairman of the Association of China Auto Engineering, said as the biennial Shanghai show opened Monday.
"After only 18 years of development, we may become the world's leading auto market," he said.
There was little sense of the gloom prevailing elsewhere in the industry -- and Chinese-made cars seemed to draw the biggest crowds.
Sales in China hit a monthly record 1.1 million in March, exceeding U.S. sales for the third month in a row as tax cuts and other government incentives drew customers back into showrooms after a brief slump late last year.
For companies including General Motors Corp., China seems the closest thing to a sure thing.
GM executives said the company intends to keep growing in China regardless of how its financial mess is resolved, though new CEO Fritz Henderson canceled plans to attend the Shanghai show to focus on the crisis back home.
Detroit-based GM is scaling back even in other parts of Asia, but it aims to double sales in China to about 2 million units a year within the next five years, whether it ends up in bankruptcy protection or not, said Kevin Wale, president and managing director of the GM China Group.