Sales of NEVs fall for the first time in 30 months
August 20, 2019 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
Sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) in China fell for the first time in 30 months, sliding 4.7% in July from a year earlier, but the country’s leading auto industry association expects the segment to ring up overall growth for the calendar year. Carmakers in China delivered 80,000 electric cars, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles in July, a little more than half of sales in June, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). China cut its subsidies for the vehicles in late June so people rushed to place their orders before the policy took effect. This resulted in a spike in June sales and then a fall in July, said Xu Haidong, Deputy Secretary General of the Association. Another cause was the implementation in July of stricter State VI emission standards, which came earlier than the central government’s 2020 deadline for 15 cities and provinces. “Dealers offered really attractive discounts to sell out the older gasoline models in stock before the new standards took effect, which lured away some potential new energy vehicle buyers as well.”
CAAM said overall vehicle sales in China fell 4.3% in July, down for a 13th consecutive month. New energy vehicles had been the rare bright spot in the country’s auto market before their sales declined last month. The accumulated NEV sales hit 699,000 from January to July, up 49.9% year-on-year. Analysts at Ping An Securities said in a research note that sales of such vehicles would return to normal in the third quarter as the impact of the policy changes gradually subsides. September and October are also usually the best months for car transactions in the country. CAAM is optimistic about the new energy vehicle market, although it sliced the whole-year sales estimate from 1.6 million to 1.5 million in late July. Still, that would represent a roughly 19% growth in sales from the 1.26 million posted last year. Ping An said it is normal that annual growth rates of over 40% seen in the past years would become harder to reach because the base number of such vehicles in China has become bigger. China has been the world’s largest market for new energy vehicles (NEVs) since 2015, with around 3.5 million on its roads and most of them produced by local makers such as BYD and BAIC’s new energy arm, Beijing Electric Vehicle Co, the China Daily reports.
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