Sales of new light vehicles in China grew in August, for the fourth consecutive month, as the market continued to rebound from the coronavirus outbreak.
Total deliveries of new light vehicles, including sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses, rose 6 percent from a year earlier to approach 1.76 million, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Thursday.
With truck demand boosted by massive government investment in infrastructure projects, such as construction of roads and railways, sales of new commercial vehicles, including trucks and buses, have remained robust since April, with August volume surging 42 percent to around 431,000.
Geely Automobile Holdings and Toyota Motor Corp. were among major automakers that posted increases last month, while the primary joint ventures of Nissan Motor Co. and General Motors saw volume slide.
Because of the severe market contraction in the first quarter amid the viral outbreak, new light-vehicle sales for the first eight months fell 15 percent to below 11.29 million. But commercial vehicle deliveries jumped 17 percent to 3.26 million.
Taken together, industrywide new-vehicle sales in August advanced 12 percent to roughly 2.19 million, with year-to-date volume dropping 9.7 percent to about 14.55 million.
EV sales
Demand for new electrified vehicles rebounded in August for the second straight month behind renewed government subsidies and volumes generated by electric vehicle startups such as Xpeng Motor and Li Auto.
Last month, aggregate sales of EVs and plug-in hybrids increased 26 percent to exceed 109,000. The tally is made up of roughly 88,000 EVs and 21,000 plug-in hybrids.
Through August, total deliveries of EVs and plug-in hybrids shrank 26 percent from a year earlier to nearly 596,000, with 466,000 EVs and 129,000 plug-in hybrids sold.