For the first time, the car market for a single country – China – will top 20 million vehicles annually. The milestone should be set in 2012, said Kevin Wale, the boss of General Motors China, during the Detroit motor show. By comparison, the U.S. market this year is expected to be a shade under 13 million. There’s still plenty of room for the Chinese market to grow, as figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show only 60 vehicles per 1,000 people. That’s less than half the world average and less than a tenth the number in the U.S. The effect of this is already being felt, as car makers design vehicles specifically for the Chinese market. For their part, Chinese consumers are said to increasingly favor high quality-vehicles with better safety standards.