China's NEV sales, production both surpass 1.2 million units in first quarter

Beijing (Gasgoo)- China’s new vehicle sales fell 11.7% from a year ago to 2.234 million units, but represented a month-over-month jump of 28.4%, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). In the first quarter of this year, the country sold 6.509 million vehicles, up by 0.2% from a year ago.

Last month, the country produced 2.241 million vehicles, down by 9.1% versus the same month of last year while the total production volume of the first three months increased to 6.484 million units.

Monthly vehicle export went up 28.8% from a year earlier to 170,000 units, including 121,000 passenger vehicles, and new energy vehicles contributed 17.4% to the results. In the first quarter, the country exported 582,000 vehicles to other markets, jumping 58.3% year over year.

The association excluded the increasing export volume and the sales of imported vehicles to see the change in domestic auto markets. It turned out that the year-over-year sales decrease got larger to 13.9% with 2.063 million vehicles sold in March, including 1.595 million traditional fuel powered vehicles, down by 26.8% year over year, and 468,000 new energy vehicles (NEVs), surging 115.9% year over year.

After the deduction, the first-quarter sales of the market declined 3.3% year over year to 5.927 million units. The quarterly results included 4.791 million traditional fuel powered vehicles, down by 15% from a year ago, and 1.137 million NEVs, soaring 129.1% versus the same span of the previous year.

The sales of passenger vehicles in March jumped 25.1% month over month but decreased slightly year over year to 1.864 million units. By segment, the production and sales of cars and minibuses achieved year-over-year growth, but SUVs and MPVs saw year-over-year decreases.

Passenger vehicle sales of Chinese brands jumped 21.5% year over year to 904,000 units last month, gaining a market share of 48.5%, 8.8 percentage points more than that of the same span of last year. By quarterly sales, those local brands’ passenger vehicle sales rose 21% year over year to 2.547 million units, accounting for 45.9% of the market, increasing by 4.6 percentage points when compared with the same period of last year.

Sales of premium vehicles had a larger decrease than the overall passenger vehicle market. In March, the country sold 273,000 premium vehicles, 14.3% fewer than the sales in the same month of last year. In the first three months, sales of premium vehicles increased by 7.4% year over year to 929,00 units, 1.6 percentage points fewer than the increase of the overall passenger market.

The NEV segment continued to maintain rapid growth in both production and sales. Data from the CAAM showed that the biggest vehicle market in the world sold and produced 484,000 and 465,000 NEVs respectively, both more than doubling from a year earlier. Monthly sales of battery electric vehicles amounted to 396,000 units while monthly results of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles skyrocketed 140% year over year to 88,000 units. Besides, the country sold 367 fuel cell vehicles, soaring 520% from a year ago.

Both NEV production and sales surpassed 1 million units in the first quarter of this year. By the end of March, the country sold 1.257 million NEVs while the year-to-date production volume totaled 1.293 million units, both increasing 140% year over year.