New-vehicle sales rebound 30% in January

New-vehicle sales spiked 30 percent to top 2.5 million last month, easily outpacing January 2020 when the coronavirus outbreak emerged and the lunar Chinese New Year holiday resulted in fewer working days, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said.

It was the tenth consecutive monthly increase as the market continues to power past the pandemic, though CAAM warned Tuesday that tight global supplies of microchips could undermine the recovery.

New-vehicle production in China slumped 16 percent to below 2.39 million in January from December, the trade group said.

January deliveries of new light vehicles — sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses — advanced 27 percent to nearly 2.05 million.

Demand for new commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses surged 43 percent to some 458,000.

And sales of electrified vehicles shot up 239 percent to exceed 179,000. The tally includes roughly 151,000 electric vehicles, up 288 percent, and 29,000 plug-in hybrids, with a gain of 105 percent.