New vehicle sales in China continued to decline in August, by 6.9% to 1.958m units from 2.103m units a year earlier, according to wholesale data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). This data include all vehicle types, including passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles.
The continued market decline reflected moderately slower economic growth in the country so far this year and falling domestic sentiment as trade relations with the US continued to deteriorate.
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The vehicle market has also been disrupted by new emissions regulations introduced in July and by the long term switch to new energy vehicles through minimum sales quotas.
Sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) were down even more sharply last month, by 15.9% year on year to 85,000 units, which the association blamed on June cuts in government subsidies.
The decline in NEV sales will be seen as a major setback for the government, which is gradually trying to wean the domestic market off conventional internal combustion engine vehicles in the long term, and various government departments are now exploring new ideas to stimulate local demand for low and zero emission vehicles.
A total of 1.991m vehicles was produced in the country last month, down by 0.5% after an 11.9% annualised decline in July.
Overall vehicle sales declined by just under 11% to 16.09m units in the first eight months of 2019 from 18.06m units in the same period of last year.
Volkswagen sales fell 1.9% to 252,700 units in August and by less than 7% to 1.894m units in the first eight months of the year, while Hyundai sales fell by 19.5% to 57,125 units last month and by 21.8% to 376,408 units year to date.
Geely Automobile reported a 19% drop in August to 101,223 units, including those of its 50%-owned Lynk & Co joint venture and also 3,208 exports.
Cumulative eight month sales were down by 17% at 844,278 units.
Dongfeng Motor and its joint ventures reported a 2.7% rise to 233,190 units in August, helped by a positive performance by both Dongfeng Nissan and Dongfeng Honda while sales at its PSA and Renault joint ventures were sharply lower.
Cumulative eight-month sales were down by 4.9% at 1,828,499 units from 1,923,186 units previously.
