Car sales in China to fall 18% year on year in January, CAAM expects

SHANGHAI, Feb 13 (SMM) – Sales of automobile in China are expected to decline 18% year on year to 1.94 million mt in January, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). This would be down 27% from December 2019.

CAAM data also showed that sales of new energy vehicles are estimated to fall 54.4% from the same month a year earlier to 44,000 units in January.

The industry association said the recent epidemic outbreak is likely to wreak havoc on auto sales and production in China in the short term and warned that the outbreak does not account for January’s drop.

There were 17 working days in January due to the Lunar New Year holiday, five days fewer than January 2019, which led to the year-over-year drop in auto sales.