JAKARTA - New energy vehicles or NEVs for the first time dominated more than 60 percent of new vehicle sales in China in July. This achievement occurred when the country's automotive market as a whole actually weakened.
China Daily quoted Sunday, August 16, citing data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers or CAAM, an association of Chinese automotive manufacturers, which showed that NEV sales in July increased 23.7 percent year-on-year to 1.561 million units. The number is equivalent to 60.4 percent of all new vehicle sales.
NEV production also increased 26.8 percent to 1.576 million units.
CAAM data covers passenger and commercial vehicles, as well as domestic sales and exports. Therefore, the figure provides a broader picture than passenger car retail data that is often used as a market reference.
From January to July, NEV production reached 9.014 million units, up 9.5 percent from the same period last year. Sales increased 9.6 percent to 9.007 million units.
The share of NEVs in the first seven months reached 51.2 percent of total new vehicle sales. This is the first time that the share has broken through 50 percent.
At a time when NEV is growing strong, China's overall automotive market actually weakened in July.
Vehicle production was recorded at 2.573 million units, down 6.8 percent from June and 0.7 percent from July last year. Sales reached 2.584 million units, down 8 percent on a monthly basis and 0.3 percent on an annual basis.
In the first seven months of this year, vehicle production and sales both fell 3.7 percent compared to the previous year, although the rate of decline narrowed compared to the first six months.
CAAM Deputy Secretary-General Chen Shihua said July is usually a quiet period for the automotive market. Visits to dealers and orders decreased, while mid-year sales programs made some of the demand happen earlier.
Prolonged hot weather, typhoons, and floods in a number of areas also reduced consumer visits to showrooms.
"Two growth engines, namely NEV and exports, help offset the pressure from the quiet period in the domestic market, while the industrial structure continues to improve," Chen said, as quoted by China Daily.
According to Chen, new energy passenger cars priced at 100,000 yuan or around 14,830 US dollars to 200,000 yuan were the main support for sales volume during the first seven months.
Exports also grew sharply. In July, NEV exports jumped 145.5 percent year-on-year to 553,000 units.
The figure is equivalent to around 53 percent of China's total vehicle exports, which reached 1.043 million units. July was the second consecutive month when NEVs accounted for more than half of the country's vehicle exports.
Chen said conventional-fuel vehicles have dominated China's automotive exports. However, the composition has begun to change after NEVs surpassed oil-fueled vehicles in June and July.
According to him, export growth can also help to withstand pressure from weak domestic demand.
Chen estimates that China's NEV exports will continue to grow rapidly and reach 4 million units this year.
"With the world's most complete NEV industry chain and clear advantages in intelligent technology, China's vehicle competitiveness is expected to be even stronger," he said.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
