BMW, Toyota Warn Sales in China Could Worsen

BMW and Toyota have joined Ford and Volkswagen in warning that they may trim their sales projections in China because of the market's slowing economic growth.

The market has enjoyed double-digit growth for several years. But China's central government has repeatedly said it wants to slow the country's overall growth to a sustainable pace of about 6%.

Car sales have been hurt this year by China's volatile stock market and an overall economic slowdown. China's passenger vehicle market grew 17% in 2013, 10% last year and about 6% through the first half of 2015.

BMW says cooling demand in China was a factor in its diminished profit margin in January-June. The company, which remains optimistic about the market long term, has already lowered its output there by 16,000 units this year. Ford predicts China's car market will contract in 2015 for the first time since 1998.

Still, carmakers continue to expand capacity in China, even though IHS Automotive has estimated the country's current capacity exceeds actual sales by 10.8 million units. VW and its local partners expect to add 900,000 units of annual output by 2017. Toyota plans to open another plant in the country in 2018