Nissan says March China auto sales up 26pc y/y

SHANGHAI: Nissan Motor Co Ltd and its local joint venture sold about 115,900 automobiles in China in March, up 26 percent from a year earlier, the Japanese automaker said on Wednesday.

That follows a 55.6 percent year-on-year rise in February and a drop in January of 0.4 percent.

Sales of Japanese cars have been slowly recovering after taking a heavy beating from a surge in anti-Japan sentiment following a territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo in late 2012.

The company's sales in the first three months of the year came to about 283,000 vehicles, up 21 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Nissan, which operates a car venture in China with Dongfeng Motor Group Co Ltd, aims to sell 1.4 million cars in the country this year, up 10.6 percent from a year earlier.