China’s 2019 NEV sales forecast once again lowered

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- China once again lowered the full-year NEV sales forecast for 2019 after three straight months of year-on-year decline.

The country's NEV (including BEV and PHEV) sales volume is projected to reach around 1.4 million units in 2019, of which 1.1 million units and 300 thousand units may be PVs and CVs respectively, according to Xu Haidong, assistant secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

Prior to the latest adjustment, the association decreased in late July the national 2019 NEV sales projection to 1.5 million units from the original 1.6 million units.

（Photo source: BAIC BJEV)

The CAAM's data showed that the decrease in China's monthly NEV sales was being sharpened month by month. The first-time year-on-year drop in July was at 4.7%, and then the decline rose to 15.8% in August and to 34.2% in September with roughly 80,000 units sold.

In September, the wholesale volume of China's locally-produced new energy passenger vehicles (NEPVs) reached roughly 65,000 units, slumping 33.4% year on year and also dropping 8% month on month, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), an association that particularly targets China-built PVs.

The CPCA said the steep dip in new energy PV sales mainly resulted from the NEV demand slowdown in cities where the automobile purchase restriction policy has been implemented, the sluggish market climate for lower-tier cities and the cost increase led by the substantial NEV subsidy phase-out. 

（Photo source: BYD's WeChat account)

Under the general downturn pressure, many automakers also reduced their NEV sales target. For instance, BAIC BJEV has reportedly cut its 2019 sales target to 150,000 units from 220,000 units, and BYD lessened its target by 50,000 units to 350,000 units. For the first three quarters of 2019, the BAIC's NEV subsidiary and BYD sold 98,382 and 192,620 NEVs respectively.