BEIJING, August 12 (Xinhua) -- The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released data on August 12 showing that China's automobile production and sales in the first seven months of this year reached 13.933 million and 14.132 million units, down 13.5% and 11.4% year-on-year respectively. Among them, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 701,000 and 699,000 units, an increase of 39.1% and 40.9% year-on-year respectively. Although the growth rate of new energy vehicles has slowed down recently, it has maintained steady growth overall.
According to Chen Shihua, assistant secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, July entered the traditional off-season for automobile sales. In that month, China's automobile production and sales were 1.8 million and 1.808 million units respectively, down 5% and 12.1% month-on-month and down 11.9% and 4.3% year-on-year. Although the overall decline in production and sales has continued to narrow, the overall downward trend in the industry has not fundamentally changed. In July, the production and sales of new energy vehicles did not perform as well as the previous month, with both month-on-month and year-on-year sales declining. The production and sales for the month were 84,000 and 80,000 units respectively, down 37.2% and 47.5% month-on-month and down 6.9% and 4.7% year-on-year. Chen Shihua believes that the end of the transition period for the new energy subsidy decline had a direct impact on the overall growth rate of new energy vehicles, with new energy passenger car sales declining in July.
According to the data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the top 10 automobile manufacturers in terms of sales volume from January to July sold a total of 12.639 million units, accounting for 89.4% of the total sales. At the same time, among these 10 companies, only Great Wall Motors and Huachen Automotive Group saw a slight increase in sales compared with the same period last year, while other companies experienced different declines.
Xu Haidong, assistant secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said that looking at the production and sales of automobiles from January to July, China's automobile production and sales are still at a low level. He predicts that with the introduction of a series of related national policies and the increasing number of China VI models, consumer sentiment is expected to improve.