China to sell 1.58 million passenger vehicles in June: CPCA

Beijing (Gasgoo)- China’s new vehicle retail sales are expected to reach 1.58 million passenger vehicles in June, representing a 4.8% decrease compared with the same month of last year, according to a preliminary forecast of the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). Here, passenger vehicles (PV) refer to locally-made cars, MPVs, and SUVs.

In the first three weeks of this month, average daily change in PV sales of China’s main passenger vehicle makers was down 2.0%, 18.2% and 4.8% respectively from a year ago.

The fourth week will see a slow growth compared with the first three weeks, but due to the high base of the same period of last year, the daily year-on-year drop of the fourth week will be nearly 20% with a total sales volume expectation of 250,000 vehicles.

In the fifth week of this month, new vehicle sales in China are forecasted to 450,000 vehicles with a daily year-on-year decrease of 2.6%.

According to the association, the year-on-year decline in June retail sales mainly resulted from the relatively high sales volume of June, 2020, when pent-up demand was released thanks to effective measures against COVID-19. Automotive chip shortage is another reason for monthly sales decrease. The CPCA expects chip supply will get better, but it needs time to improve on sales.