New vehicle sales in China fell 48 percent to 1.18 million in April, a 10-year low for the month, as the coronavirus outbreak negatively impacted production and shipments, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Wednesday.

Shanghai and some provinces have been under lockdown for weeks to contain COVID-19 outbreaks, measures that have broadly undermined consumer and business activity, including parts and vehicle assembly and dealership sales operations.

As a result, overall deliveries of new light vehicles including sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses skidded 43 percent to around 965,000 in April, according to the trade group. 

Minibus deliveries shrank 56 percent to some 18,000 while multi-purpose vehicle sales plunged 55 percent to about 39,000. 

Crossover and SUV volume slumped 46 percent to about 447,000. Sedan deliveries also slipped 39 percent to 461,000. 

April sales of commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses plummeted 61 percent to roughly 216,000.

In the first four months, the Chinese new-vehicle market contracted 12 percent to some 7.69 million. During the period, light-vehicle sales industrywide dipped 4.2 percent to around 6.51 million, while commercial vehicle deliveries 40 percent to approximately 1.18 million.

Electrified vehicles 
While falling 38 percent from March, the Chinese market for electrified vehicles continued to expand in April compared with the same month last year.

April shipments of full electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids industrywide surged 45 percent year on year to roughly 299,000. 

Sales of EVs rose 35 percent to 231,000 and plug-in hybrid deliveries jumped 94 percent to 68,000.

Through April, electrified vehicle sales have grown 110 percent to approach 1.56 million this year. EV deliveries doubled from a year earlier to some 1.24 million while plug-in hybrid sales soared 170 percent to around 316,000. 

The CAAM and some private analysts said they also expected production and demand to begin to catch up in coming weeks for the losses in April, when dozens of cities were in full or partial lockdown.

Daiwa Capital Markets said in a note on Tuesday it expected major automakers would “catch up in the coming months to make up for the sales loss in April” with normal production levels in Shanghai this month.

Reuters contributed to this report.