Roughly 55 percent of dealerships across China believe the new-vehicle market will shrink 10 percent or more in 2020 because of the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, according to a survey by the China Automobile Dealers Association.
Just 29 percent of the 29,773 dealerships polled across the country expect the market to grow this year, the survey released this week shows.
In the first six months, just 21.5 percent of dealerships recorded sales increases, of which 60 percent were stores marketing luxury brands.
More than 30 percent of dealerships reported sales declines of more than 30 percent.
As a result, while 29 percent of dealerships were profitable in the first half, 38 percent reported losses. The remaining 33 percent managed to break even, according to the survey.
Hit hard by the virus outbreak, sales of new light vehicles in China, including sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses, didn’t resume growing until May. Despite a sustained rebound from May to June, China’s new light-vehicle deliveries in the first half slumped 22 percent from a year earlier to below 7.9 million, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.