Toyota, Honda sales sink in March

BEIJING — Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp.’s March sales in China, the world’s biggest auto market, fell 16 percent to 101,800 compared with a year ago.

Separately, Honda said on Friday its China sales dropped 51 percent year-on-year to 60,441 last month.

The coronavirus epidemic, which has killed more than 3,300 people in China, caused overall auto sales in the country to drop 79 percent in February.

Assembly plants and dealerships across China continue to reopen and resume operations, though slowly, and government officials have moved to spur demand by relaxing taxes toward the purchase of electric vehicles and used cars and trucks.