China’s auto sales rose 3% in the first 8 months of the year compared to the same period last year, reaching 18.77 million new vehicles, while production increased 2.7% to 18.67 million vehicles.
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said sales fell 5% year-on-year in August alone to about 2.45 million vehicles, while production fell 3.2% to 2.49 million vehicles.
The Chinese auto market is about to enter the peak sales season, referring to the months of September and October every year, Xinhua news agency quoted Shen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, as saying.
Highlighting the impact of the old car promotion and replacement programmes, Shen said these measures will help boost the auto market for the rest of this year and unleash more demand in the domestic market.
Meanwhile, car exports from China increased by 25.4% during the first 8 months of this year to 511,000 cars.
On the other hand, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed that the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China continued to grow rapidly during the first 8 months of the first year, and that the share of these vehicles in the overall Chinese automobile market continued to grow.
During the period, the production of new energy vehicles including electric and hybrid vehicles reached 7.01 million units, up 29% year-on-year, while sales reached 7.04 million units, up 30.9% year-on-year. The share of new energy vehicles in the Chinese market reached 37.5% of total domestic sales.
