New vehicle sales in China fell by 0.4% year on year to 1,903,500 units in May, compared with already sluggish year earlier volumes, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
This followed a 0.5% annual decline in April, making it the first successive monthly decline since 2011.
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The association’s spokesman, Yao Jie, suggested the market’s slowdown was in line with the central government’s “new normal” policy for the domestic economy.
The government has revised down its full year GDP growth target to 7%, way below the peak double-digit growth seen 4-5 years ago, reflecting a slowdown in the country’s property market and sluggish exports.
The sales decline in May came as the country’s vehicle manufacturers intensified their price war to help underpin sales volumes.
General Motors, which announced its Chinese joint ventures had incurred a 4% drop in combined sales to 252,567 units in May, joined a long list of manufacturers to cut prices across its vehicle range last month.
Nissan switched from reporting wholesales to retail sales, which helped it achieve flat sales of 102,500 units in May, while year to date retail sales rose by 6.8% compared with a 2.5% rise in wholesale volumes.
Toyota reported a 13% rise in sales to 91,900 units last month, pushing up its cumulative five-month sales by 4.4% to 412,200 units.
Ford said its joint ventures enjoyed a 4% sales increase to 91,013 in May and 1% rise to 459,982 units year to date.
Overall cumulative vehicle sales in the first five months of the year increased by 2.1% to just over 10m units, with the association admitting the market could miss the 7% full year growth forecast it announced in January.
