China gains 1.9% growth in May homegrown PV retail sales

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- In May, the retail sales of China's locally-produced PVs (referring to cars, MPVs, SUVs and minibuses) reached 1.639 million units, edging up 1.9% year on year, and growing 12.3% month on month, according to the China passenger Car Association (CPCA). This was the first-time year-on-year growth for the past eleven months.

The growth in PV monthly sales from January to May stood at -20%, -78%, -40%, -3% and 1.9% respectively, which kept well with a V-shaped recovery.

Compared to the year-ago period whose retail PV sales basically remained flat between April and May, this year's May sales jumped 12.3% month on month due to the resilient rigid demands for automobiles and the sound market recovery benefitting from the orderly work resumption and frequent roll-out of governmental incentives.

According to the CPCA, the deliveries of the China-made luxury vehicles jumped 28% from a year earlier thanks to the rapid recovery in the demands of consumers who want to replace their vehicles with a more premium one.

In May, the No.1 automaker by domestic PV retail sales was still FAW-VW, followed by SAIC Motor's two joint ventures. The occupants of the fourth and fifth places were Dongfeng Nissan and Geely Auto, which got their positions reversed over a month ago. Besides, Dongfeng Honda moved up four places to the six, and Changan Automobile's ranking remained unchanged compared to April. Toyota’s two Chinese joint ventures were ranked ninth and tenth respectively.

Mainly hit by the coronavirus spread and the Spring Festival, China's locally-made PV deliveries slumped 26% from the year-ago period to 6.165 million units in the Jan.-May period.

PV wholesale volume in May amounted to 1.677 million units, climbing 6.9% over the previous year, for the first time representing positive growth since July 2018. For the first five months, automakers in the country sold roughly 6.074 million homegrown PVs, a year-on-year decrease of 27.8%.

The top five automakers by May PV wholesales remained same compared to the previous month. SGWM rose to the sixth place, followed by FAW-Toyota, Changan Automobile and two GAC Group's joint ventures.

Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the CPCA, pointed out that the positive growth in both May PV retail and wholesale volumes reflected the effective prevention and control of the coronavirus pandemic, and it is unlikely to see a sharp plunge in the future.

In May, automakers in China sold roughly 70,200 China-made new energy PVs (NEPVs), which tumbled 25.8% year over year, while leapt 19.5% month over month. To be specific, the wholesales of PHEVs and BEVs reached roughly 14,000 units (-31%) and 56,000 units (-27%) respectively.

After confronted with a sharp decline in April, Tesla's China-built Model 3 was once again crowned the best-selling NEPV model with a sales volume of 11,095 units in May, which skyrocketed 205% from April.

Mr. Cui said the robust growth in Model 3 sales manifested the catfish effect stemming from the government's introduction of Tesla, which gives impetus to the development of China's NEV industry and makes NEVs better received by Chinese consumers.