Nissan says China 2015 sales up 6.3pc

BEIJING: Nissan Motor Co Ltd and its Chinese joint venture partner sold 1.25 million vehicles in China in 2015, up 6.3 percent from the previous year, the Japanese car maker said on Wednesday.

In December, Nissan sold 159,100 vehicles, up 15 percent from a year earlier.

That compares with a 21.9 percent increase in November and a 16.8 percent rise in October.

Japanese automakers have outperformed the expected 3 percent growth of the overall Chinese car market, the world's largest, where consumer appetite for cars waned under the slowest economic expansion in 25 years and a stock market rout.

Nissan, which operates a car venture in China with Dongfeng Motor Group Co Ltd, revised its 2015 China forecast in November to 1.25 million units from 1.3 million previously.

Rival Toyota Motor Corp forecast on Tuesday that sales would rise roughly 2.7 percent in 2016 year-on-year, less than half its 2015 growth rate of 8.7 percent.