China’s new light-vehicle market lost steam in March after expanding for three straight months, with production and shipments upended by restrictive measures widely adopted by local governments to contain a spike in coronavirus cases.
Deliveries of new sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses slid 0.6 percent to 1.86 million last month, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on Monday.
Minibus sales advanced 34 percent to around 45,000, while sedan deliveries edged up 0.2 percent to some 872,000.
But multi-purpose vehicle sales slumped 24 percent to some 71,000, while the volume of crossovers and SUVs edged down 0.1 percent to about 876,000.
First-quarter sales of new light vehicles industrywide rose 9 percent to approach 5.55 million on strong volume generated in January and February.
The market for new commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses continued shrinking in March amid a slowing domestic economy. New commercial vehicle sales plunged 44 percent to some 370,000 last month, with year-to-date volume slipping 32 percent to roughly 965,000.
Overall sales of new vehicles industrywide fell 12 percent to around 2.23 million in March, with year-to-date deliveries inching up 0.2 percent to 6.5 million.
Volkswagen Group, Toyota Motor Corp., Tesla Inc. and Nio Inc. are among automakers forced to idle output in recent weeks as governments impose strict lockdown measures to contain rising COVID cases.
“The recent pandemic situation has been quite severe and so the figures in March were not too good, and we currently do not see much improvement in April,” said Chen Shihua, the association’s deputy secretary general.
He added automakers are pressing the government for supportive measures such as lower taxes on auto sales.
Because a large number of cities including Shenzhen and Changchun have adopted complete or partial lockdowns to curb viral outbreaks, dealerships in 25 of 90 cities were forced to temporarily close down in March, according to a survey conducted by the China Passenger Car Association.
In Shanghai, dealerships have been closed since April 1.
In stark contrast to the overall new-vehicle market contraction, demand for electrified vehicles remained robust in March, rising 110 percent to some 484,000.
CAAM said all-electric vehicle deliveries rose 110 percent to 396,000 full electric and plug-in hybrid volume rose 140 percent to 88,000. In the first quarter, sales of electrified vehicles industrywide soared 140 percent to top 1.25 million, with EV deliveries surging 130 percent to top 1 million while plug-in hybrid sales tripled to approach 250,000.
Reuters contributed to this report.