The connection between the Chinese car and petrol sales

China's booming car sales, falling gas usage stump analysts

"Car sales in China are booming [in the third quarter], but gasoline sales seem to be stuck in the slow lane," wrote Standard Chartered analysts headed by Stephen Green in Shanghai .
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Assuming most vehicles older than 10 years are scrapped, China 's car stock this year is set to rise about 24% to 32 million vehicles if sales remain on track in the fourth quarter.

That compares with a 10% rise in gasoline consumption for the first half of the year, according to data from China Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals, an energy-industry publication cited by Standard Chartered.

Green says the gap between rising car ownership and fuel demand can be also explained by improving efficiency.

Indications are that consumers are retiring gas guzzlers in favor of more economical models.

Vehicles with engine sizes of less that 1.6 liters accounted for about 70% of all car sales so far this year, up from 62% from 2008, spurred by tax breaks and other government incentives.

I don't think that the discrepency could came from mistical carparks or similar things.

But to get correct data,the 24% increase in the quantity of the cars have to came with 12% efficiency increase,it mean that the new cars have to use half as much fuel compared to the old ones.

Or they buy more cars,and drive less.
Of course,this not make eny sense.You buy a car to use it.Or is it just an inflation hedge?Could you buy a car as an investment ?