China's auto market 汽车市场 was the second largest in the world last year, behind the United States.
The new data 数据 suggests though that in the first few weeks of this year a lot more cars were sold here than in America.
The Chinese bought 735,000 new vehicles - about 78,000 more than were sold in the United States. Analysts 分析者 caution though that we shouldn't conclude that this is now the world's largest car market.
Sales are always higher in China ahead of the Lunar New Year celebrations, which this year came at the end of the January. In America they usually fall after Christmas.
Of course the economic crisis 金融危机 made the situation in the US even worse than normal.
But it's unlikely that China will maintain the number one position in world auto sales throughout the year.
The president of General Motors China Division, Kevin Wale points out that even if more cars are sold here than in the US, that doesn't necessarily mean more profit 利润 is generated in China:
"You need to recognise that the value of those sales are on average 平均 significantly lower than the sale of a vehicle in the US, so the revenue 收入 that's generated in the market will be significantly larger than the China market for quite some time to come."
As far as volume 量 of sales though, the direction of travel is clear. Mr Wale expects China to become the world's largest auto market within five to ten years.
Outside of big cities like Shanghai few Chinese people own a car and the big auto makers hope that, as standards of living 生活水平 continue to improve here, more will want to buy one.
译文:
中国汽车销售大丰收
去年，中国汽车市场排名世界第二强，仅次于美国。
然而，新数据表明，在今年年初几周内，中国的汽车销量远甚于美国。
中国人共买了735,000辆新车——其中，大约超过78,000辆车卖给了美国。然而，分析师告诫说，我们不应该得出这样的结论，中国目前是世界上最大的汽车市场。
在农历新年到来前，中国的销售量总是名列前茅，今年，这种情况一直持续到一月底。而在美国，其销售量通常在圣诞节过后开始下降。
当然，金融危机使美国的现状比正常情况更糟糕。
但是，中国不可能在整个一年中都保持汽车销量世界第一。
通用汽车中国业务部的总裁，Kevin Wale指出，即使中国的汽车销售量比美国高，也并不意味着中国生产出更多的利润。
“你需要意识到，中国销售汽车所得的平均价值明显低于美国，因而，美国汽车市场所产生的收入明显大于中国，这需要中国经过相当长的一段时间来填补。”
然而，就从销售量上来说，方向是明确的。瓦勒先生预计中国将在五年到十年之内成为世界上最大的汽车市场。
除了上海这样的大城市以外，其他地方很少有人拥有自己的汽车。大汽车制造商希望，随着中国人民生活水平的不断改善，越来越多的中国人愿意购买一辆属于自己的汽车。