Car sales in China are usually booming this time of year, but not so much in 2025.
China’s car sales fell for the second straight month at a time that’s usually the busiest time of the year. According to a report from Bloomberg, retail vehicle sales fell about 8% to 2.2 million units in November. That’s according to data published by the China Passenger Car Association on Monday.
The slowdown is mainly due to a 22% slump in sales of gasoline cars, with new-energy vehicle sales rising 4.2% for the month, according to the Bloomberg report.
“This is a relatively rare situation,” Cui Dongshu, the association’s secretary general, told Bloomberg. “Usually the trend at the end of the year is that the car market should get stronger and stronger from October. But the retail sales in November compared to previous years is unusual.”
Demand for gasoline cars has been hurt by the scaling back or suspension of trade-in subsidies, which gave consumers up to 20,000 yuan ($2,800) to scrap an older car for a new fuel-efficient vehicle, in many locations.
In the EV market, more than a dozen carmakers, including Xiaomi Corp. and Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd., offered to make up for the looming loss of up to 15,000 yuan in tax breaks if consumers placed their orders by November, Bloomberg reported. While that’s given a small boost to sales, attention is turning to the difficulties in sustaining momentum into the new year as the rolling back of government support hurts demand. Figures released earlier this month showed BYD Co.’s sales dropped for a third month as the popular EV brand faces growing competition from the likes of Geely and Xiaomi, Bloomberg reported.
Original source: https://www.corpmagazine.com/industry/automotive/china-carmakers-suffer-end-of-year-slump/
