China April car price drops slightly on month

Shanghai, May 14 (Gasgoo.com) In China's auto market, prices of domestically made vehicles fell slightly last month from March, the second monthly drop in a row, and imported cars saw their price begin to rise, Xinhua News reported yesterday, citing a report from the country's top economic planner.

In April, prices of vehicles made in China dropped 0.21% month on month (m/m), but grew 1.43% year on year (y/y), and prices of imported cars increased 1.93% m/m, also up 4.66% y/y, said the price monitoring center of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

Of the domestically-made vehicles, prices of passenger cars dropped 0.36% m/m, but grew 0.92% y/y, and prices of commercial vehicles remained relatively stable, with little fluctuation among different models.

The price monitoring data show that the prices of imported cars last month began to rise, up 1.93% m/m and up 4.66% y/y. Of them, prices of imported sedans were up 3.56% m/m and 6.43% y/y as more new models went on sale, and prices of imported SUVs were down 0.21% m/m but up 2.31%. 

Since the beginning of the second quarter, more vehicle models have been put onto the market, resulting in intensive competition, but price fluctuations will not be great and the possible drop will be slight, said the report.