With the news that China's car sales fell for the fifth consecutive month in November, global automakers face a harsh--if not unfamiliar--reality in China. Anyone who was assuming that things would be different in China just doesn't understand the basic economics of car production. Local player Geely--which also owns Volvo, controls Lotus and owns nearly 10% of Daimler--is a distant fourth after the Sino-Western JVs with a 6.7% market share year-to-date. It has been a difficult year for the Chinese equity markets as a whole, but BYD’s share price decline in the face of profit growth shows the perils of being a publicly-listed Chinese car company. In the meantime, the rest of the carmaking world will have to deal with a market that is slowing and facing inventories at record high levels.

Source: Forbes December 11, 2018 15:22 UTC