Industry sales advance nearly 13% in Oct.

New-vehicle demand in China continued to grow for the seventh consecutive month in October as the economy kept recovering in the wake of the coronavirus. 

Industry-wide deliveries rose 13 percent to exceed 2.57 million last month, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Wednesday.

Sales of commercial vehicles including trucks and buses surged 30 percent to around 464,000. 

Demand for light vehicles — sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multi-purpose vehicles and minibuses — increased 9.3 percent to some 2.11 million.

Deliveries of electrified vehicles soared 105 percent to some 160,000. The number includes roughly 133,000 electric vehicles and 27,000 plug-in hybrids. 

After suffering a 43 percent contraction in the first quarter amid the virus outbreak, the Chinese new-vehicle market resumed growth in April. 

In the first ten months, industry-wide sales dipped 4.7 percent to around 19.7 million. Commercial vehicle demand jumped 21 percent to roughly 4.2 million on the back of massive government-led investments in domestic infrastructure construction projects, such as new roads and railways.  

By contrast, light-vehicle demand dropped 9.9 percent to some 15.5 million in the first ten months.

Total sales of EVs and plug-in hybrids also fell 7.1 percent to approximately 901,000. The tally includes about 719,000 EVs and 181,000 plug-in hybrids.