This post was originally published on this site
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) released data Thursday showing a 29.7% sales jump in July compared to a year earlier to 2.42 million units. Sales of new energy vehicles increased by 120%.
The jump is part of an extended recovery that began in June with the easing of COVID protocols, which included months of stringent lockdowns in the major manufacturing hubs of Shanghai and Changchun. A recovery supported by government incentives such as a lower sales tax for small-engine vehicles and subsidies to spur trade-ins of gasoline vehicles for electric ones.
COVID, however, was not the only headwind the market is recovering from. CAAM’s senior official Xu Haidong believes that China will continue to see “stable increases” following a chip shortage last year that severely impacted the world’s auto manufacturing. A shortage that was exacerbated by the COVID epidemic.
The data also showed that sales of plug-in hybrids nearly tripled and full electric vehicles doubled as higher oil costs and battery prices push consumers to consider more economical vehicles.
Annual sales of gasoline cars, which are sold with bigger discounts, are expected to fall for the fifth straight year in 2022, said Xu Changming, deputy director of the official think tank State Information Center. Changming cautioned that the overall vehicle demand is not as strong as expected despite the incentives.
