According to new forecasts, CPCA now expects sales to fall this year by 11 percent. Until now, they had expected that it would decrease by only one percent. The reduced forecast mainly reflects the negative impact of the jump in oil prices on the demand of citizens and on the entire supply chain in the automotive sector, according to the association.
Data for May show that 1.53 vehicles were sold, which is 22.3 percent less than in the same month last year. Sales thus decreased for the eighth month in a row, CPCA data show.
Citizens were significantly less inclined to buy a vehicle with an internal combustion engine, according to only 560 thousand vehicles sold, about 39 percent less than last year. Sales of fully electric vehicles and hybrids also decreased, by 7.5 percent, with 950 thousand vehicles sold.
Exports, on the other hand, jumped by 75.1 percent in May, according to the association’s data, but did not compensate for the decline in the domestic market.
However, the general secretary of the association, Cui Dongshu, is cautiously optimistic, forecasting that the market will gradually normalize in the third quarter and rise again in the last three months of 2026.
Foreign demand for Chinese electric vehicles is still strong, so in May, for the first time in nine months, BYD sold more vehicles than last year, notes dpa, and Nij sales also increased significantly.