Chinese auto sales rise further in April amid steady recovery momentum

Photo taken on Dec. 9, 2020 shows the general assembly line of an auto plant of Beijing Hyundai in Cangzhou City, north China's Hebei Province. (Photo by Yuan Liwei/Xinhua)

BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- China's auto sales rose 8.6 percent year on year to 2.25 million units in April, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) showed Wednesday.

Although the growth pace is slower than the 74.9-percent year-on-year rise seen in March, auto production and sales continued to buck an upward trend amid the sector's solid recovery momentum last month, according to the association.

In the January-April period, the country's auto sales rose 51.8 percent year on year to 8.75 million units.

China's automobile sector posted a strong exports performance in April. Chinese car firms exported 151,000 cars in April, rising by 13.7-percent month on month and 1.1 times year on year, the CAAM said.

About 516,000 cars were exported in the first four months of this year, up 88.1 percent year on year.

During the period, exports of passenger cars rose 89.3 percent year on year to 396,000 units, while that of commercial cars increased by 84.3 percent to reach 120,000 units, CAAM data showed.

Sales of new energy vehicles (NEV) in China increased by nearly 250 percent year on year in the first four months amid the steady recovery of market demand, data from the CAAM showed.

In the Jan.-April period, NEV sales amounted to 732,000 units, up 249.2 percent year on year.

In April alone, NEV sales surged 180 percent year on year to reach 206,000 units, while sales of passenger vehicles increased 10.8 percent year on year to 1.7 million units, the data showed.

The monthly production and sales of the NEV remained over 200,000 units, setting new monthly records and outperforming the automobile industry as a whole, the association said.

China will further promote NEVs' high-quality development by advancing the integration of technologies such as electrification and intelligent networking, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The association is cautiously optimistic about the future of the auto industry, noting that the uncertainty in the global pandemic situation is still great, while the impact of chip supply problems on production may influence Q2 performance, according to the CAAM.