China auto sales up 18.7% YoY in February 2022

China’s vehicle sales, production, and export volume saw a month-over-month drop in February because of the one-week long Chinese New Year holiday and sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks, but the market remained stable with year-over-year sales increases in the first two months of this year. The sales and production volume represented a growth of 10% when compared with the same period of 2019.

China’s auto sales jumped 18.7% year over year in February to 1.737 million units, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. The total sales in the first two months of this year amounted to 4.268 million units, representing a year-over-year growth of 7.5%. Compared with January, February sales saw a decline of 31.4%.

Regarding production volume, the country built 1.813 million vehicles last month, down 25.2% month over month but up 20.6% year over year while the year-to-date outputs increased 8.8% from a year earlier to 4.235 million units, the association said.

The passenger vehicle segment had a double-digit decline from a month ago in both monthly sales and output, but they managed to see a double-digit year-over-year jump. The combined sales volume of the sector went up by 14.4% from a year earlier to 3.674 million units.

The market share of Chinese brands’ passenger vehicle sales stayed flat in February compared with the same month of last year. Passenger vehicle sales of Chinese brands jumped 28% from a year earlier to 634,000 units, with a share of 42.6%. Throughout February, Chinese brands have sold a total of 1.637 million passenger vehicles this year, increasing 20.3% year over year. The share of year-to-date sales rose 2.2 percentage points to 44.6%.

The sales of locally-made passenger vehicles from premium brands amounted to 268,000 units, surging 31.6% from a year ago, 20.5 percentage points higher than that of January. By the end of February, sales of premium-branded passenger vehicles edged up 20% year over year to 656,000 units.

Commercial vehicles had a narrower year-over-year decrease in February than the previous month. The production and sale volume of the sector totaled 279,000 and 250,000 vehicles, down by 18.3% and 16.6% respectively versus the results of February in 2021, 9.7 and 8.5 percentage points fewer than the previous month.

New energy vehicle (NEV) production and sales continued to have rapid growth last month. The biggest automotive market made and sold 368,000 and 334,000 NEVs, surging 200% and 180% year over year. Monthly sales of the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle segment soared 340% to 75,000 units while the sales of fuel cell vehicles stood at 178 units with a year-over-year growth of 540% thanks to low base.

China’s NEV sales amounted to 765,000 vehicles in the first two months of this year, up by 150% from a year earlier. The market share of this segment was 17.9%.

Last month, the country exported 180,000 vehicles to other markets, falling 21.9% month over month but jumping 60.8% year over year. The results included 146,000 passenger vehicles and 34,000 commercial vehicles. 52% of the monthly export growth came from NEVs.

The Jan.-Feb. export volume grew by 75% to 412,000 units, including 331,000 passenger vehicles and 81,000 commercial vehicles. The consequence of the Russia-Ukraine conflict may be seen in the export results of March, the association added.