CAAM: China vehicle sales to reach 29.4 million

CAAM released the domestic October production and sales data on November 10th, showing that the production and sales volume reach 2.6 million and 2.7 million units in October with monthly decline of 2.5% and 0.2% respectively. NEV shows strong growth, with production and sales volume reaching 92,000 units and 91,000 units. The total sales in the previous ten months for NEV reach 490,000 units with a year-on-year growth of 45.4%.

The decreasing price discounts in September and October may explain the sales decline. Besides, the sales overdraft stimulated by the halving purchase tax in last year also decreases the current sales. It’s also predicted that the preferential policy, which ends in December, will stimulate sales growth in the next two months. But experts say that the end of policy will not cause great impacts on the market, because the market is now stepping into steady growth.

It’s learned that the domestic auto growth is declining to 4% till now, compared with 14% in 2016 and 5% in 2017 Q1. CAAM predicts that the overall 5% growth will keep for a long time in the future. In the meantime, the total market sales volume is predicted to reach 29.4m units in 2017 and exceed 40m units in the future.

But CAAM also states that 40m units’ sales number conforms to reality but needs help from international market. The high-growth of exported vehicle sales results in greater reliance on foreign markets. Total exported vehicle number reaches 88,000 units in October, showing month-on-month and year-on-year growths of 5.8% and 42.2% respectively. India and Southeast Asia are the main target markets, while sales in Europe and North America show negative growths.

Besides, the fast growth of NEV should also be mentioned, with the total commercial and passenger NEV sales reaching 97,000 units and 393,000 units in the previous ten months.