Vehicle sales accelerate to record

Although the Chinese government has issued policies to shore up domestic automakers, homegrown brands still face losing market share as their foreign rivals have invested heavily to strengthen their foothold in the world's largest automobile market.

In January, General Motors and its joint ventures set a monthly sales record in China with deliveries of 348,061 vehicles, an increase of 12 percent over January 2013, the previous sales-record month.

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Domestic sales by Shanghai GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling and their Buick and Wuling brands all reached all-time highs as well in January.

Also from the United States, Ford Motor Co reported a surge of 53 percent year-on-year with 94,466 vehicles in China in January.

German luxury vehicle provider Daimler said that sales of Mercedes-Benz vehicles jumped more than 42 percent to a record 24,887 vehicles in January.

Its German competitor Audi also saw sales increase by 18.2 percent from a year earlier to 44,226 vehicles during the same period.

Nissan China reported sales of 95,200 vehicles in China in January, a dip of 0.4 percent from 2013. Nissan said that without the impact of the Spring Festival, the Japanese company would be reporting a sales increase of 15 percent in January.