Shanghai (Gasgoo)- China's automotive industry maintained steady expansion in the first quarter of 2025, as both supply and demand accelerated. A series of ongoing policy measures aimed at stimulating car consumption continued to take effect, contributing to improved market quality, a wave of new product launches, and rising consumer confidence. As a result, the country's automobile market recorded double-digit growth in both production and sales in the quarter, marking a strong start to the year.
China's passenger vehicle sales remained solid, while the commercial vehicle segment showed signs of recovery. New energy vehicles (NEVs) continued their rapid rise, offering strong support to overall industry performance. Meanwhile, vehicle exports remained on a steady upward trend, with NEV exports growing particularly fast. China's wholly-owned brands also sustained their upward momentum, maintaining a high share of the market.
Looking ahead to the second quarter, the combined impact of favorable policies, new product releases at the AUTO SHANGHAI 2025, and local promotional campaigns is expected to further stimulate consumer demand and extend the current growth trajectory.
In March 2025, China produced 3.006 million vehicles and sold 2.915 million vehicles, representing month-on-month increases of 42.9% and 37%, and year-on-year growth of 11.9% and 8.2%, respectively, according to data provided by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers ("CAAM").
For the first quarter of this year, total automobile production and sales reached 7.561 million and 7.47 million units, up 14.5% and 11.2% year-on-year. However, growth slightly moderated compared to the January–February period.
Passenger vehicles continued to lead the market in March, with production and sales at 2.574 million and 2.468 million units, up 44.2% and 36% month-on-month, and 14.4% and 10.4% year-on-year.
For the first quarter, passenger vehicle output and sales reached 6.513 million and 6.419 million units, representing year-on-year increases of 16.1% and 12.9%.
China's self-owned brands saw particularly strong performance in passenger vehicle sales. In March, they sold 1.629 million passenger vehicles, a 22.8% increase year-on-year, accounting for 66% of the overall passenger vehicle sales—up 6.7 percentage points from the same period last year.
From January to March, passenger vehicle sales of China's wholly-owned brands totaled 4.369 million units, up 28.8%, with market share rising 8.4 percentage points year on year to 68.1%.
Commercial vehicle production and sales in March stood at 431,000 and 447,000 units, up 35.8% and 42.8% month-on-month, but down 1.4% and 2.4% year-on-year. Of those, sales of natural gas-powered commercial vehicles reached 29,000 units, up 30% from the previous month but down 15.4% year-on-year.
Over the first quarter, commercial vehicle production and sales totaled 1.048 million and 1.051 million units, up 5.1% and 1.8% over a year earlier, with natural gas-powered vehicle sales reaching 65,000 units, edging up 0.02% from the year-ago period.
New energy vehicles remained a bright spot. In March, China's NEV production hit 1.277 million units and sales reached 1.237 million, up 47.9% and 40.1% year-on-year, accounting for 42.4% of total new car sales.
In the first three months of the year, NEV output and sales totaled 3.182 million and 3.075 million units, up 50.4% and 47.1%, making up 41.2% of overall new car sales.
In China's domestic market, automobile sales in March reached 2.409 million units, up 42.7% month-on-month and 9.9% year-on-year. Among them, traditional oil-fueled vehicle sales stood at 1.33 million units, a 43.4% month-on-month increase but a 7.3% year-on-year decline.
In the January–March period, domestic market's sales totaled 6.05 million vehicles, up 12.1% year-on-year, while sales of traditional oil-fueled vehicles dropped 5.4% to 3.417 million units.
Exports also remained resilient. China has 507,000 vehicles exported in March, up 14.9% from February and 1% from a year earlier. In the first quarter, vehicle exports reached 1.42 million units, up 7.3% year-on-year.
Among the top ten vehicle exporters in March, Chery led with 86,000 units shipped, a 2.8% year-on-year increase and accounting for 17.1% of China's total exports. BYD posted the fastest growth, exporting 73,000 vehicles, soaring 88.4% from a year earlier.
From January to March of 2025, Chery exported 254,000 vehicles, essentially flat year-on-year, while BYD saw exports soar 120% over the previous year to 214,000 units.
