China auto sales see smaller YoY growth: industry body

Beijing (Gasgoo)- China’s vehicle sales in May might see the smallest year-on-year increase in the first five months, but the month-on-month drop was expected to be narrowed, according to an estimate of an industry association released on Thursday.

A preliminary tally from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers says that auto sales of the world’s largest vehicle market reached 2.204 million units last month, up 0.5% from a year ago, 8.1 percentage points less than that of April sales, and down 2.1% from a month ago, 7.7 percentage points less than that of the previous month.

Regarding different segments, monthly sales of passenger vehicles may see a year-on-year growth of 6% while those of commercial vehicles may drop 8.8% compared with the same period of last year.

Thanks to the robust growth of the first quarter, the association predicted that in the first five months, China’s auto sales will total 10.951 million vehicles, jumping 37.6% year on year. The year-to-date sales of passenger vehicles may see a year-on-year growth of 40.2% while commercial vehicles may increase 31.5% from a year ago.

In the first quarter of this year, China auto sales reached 6.484 million units, shooting up 81.7% and 75.6% over the year-ago period when sales plunged because of COVID-19, while edging up 0.3% and 1.8% compared to the same period in 2019.