China’s auto sales down by 47.6% YoY in April 2022

Beijing (Gasgoo)- China’s vehicle sales and production in April dropped over 40% from a year earlier to a record low for April in the past 10 years, affected by COVID-19 and the worst-ever challenges in the automotive supply chain, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. But new energy vehicles (NEVs) managed to see a year-over-year growth even though the segment’s monthly sales were also dented.

In April, the country produced 1.205 million vehicles, down by 46.2% month over month and 46.1% year over year while the monthly sales dropped 47.6% from a year earlier to 1.181 million units.

By the end of April, the country’s year-to-date vehicle production declined 10.5% versus the same period of last year to 7.69 million units while the year-to-date sales decreased 12.1% year over year to 7.691 million vehicles.

The country shipped 141,000 vehicles to other countries in the fourth month of this year, down by 6.6% year over year. The monthly export results included 99,000 passenger vehicles, 15.2% fewer than April 2021, and 42,000 commercial vehicles, jumping 23.2% from a year ago. The cumulative export sales of the first four months increased 39.4% year over year to 723,000 units.

Excluding the export and sales of imported vehicles, China’s consumers bought 1.04 million locally-made vehicles in April this year, down by 50.6% from the same month of last year. For the first four months of this year, the country’s locally-made vehicle sales were 15.4% fewer than the same span of last year.

The decrease of monthly passenger vehicle sales widened in April. Last month, the market made and sold 996,000 and 965,000 vehicles, down by 41.9% and 43.4% year over year respectively, 41.8 and 42.8 percentage points more than the changes of March.

Chinese passenger vehicle brands got much more market share in April. According to the association, passenger vehicle sales from local brands stood at 551,000 units, falling 23.3% year over year, but accounting for 57% of the overall passenger vehicle segment, up by 14.9 percentage points.

The year-to-date passenger vehicle sales of Chinese brands rose by 9.8% from a year ago to 3.098 million, taking a share of 47.6%, 6 percentage points more than the same span of 2021.

The premium vehicle segment saw a larger decline than the overall passenger vehicle segment. Last month, the sales of China-made premium vehicles slumped by 61.5% from a year ago to 114,000 units. The sales of locally-made premium vehicles totaled 1.042 million units in Jan.-Apr., representing a year-over-year decrease of 10.1%, 5.9 percentage points more than that of the overall segment.

Commercial vehicle sales continued to decrease. Among all kinds of trucks, heavy-duty trucks had the largest sales plummet (77.3%) in April with 149,000 vehicles fewer than the same month of 2021.

Despite all kinds of difficulties in April, the NEV segment also achieved year-over-year sales growth. For the month, the country produced 312,000 NEVs and sold 299,000 NEVs, representing a respective year-over-year increase of 43.9% and 44.6%. In April, China also built 178 fuel cell vehicles and sold 94 fuel cell vehicles.

The year-to-date NEV sales of the largest automotive market in the world more than doubled to 1.556 million units, thanks to the substantial increase in the first quarter of this year. The sales of fuel cell vehicles soared 340% to 832 units.