Annual electrified vehicle sales likely to dip in 2019

New electrified-vehicle sales in China are on track to decline in 2019 after falling for five straight months, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said. 

The industry trade group made the forecast Tuesday after releasing China’s new-vehicle sales for November.

In November, the electrified new-vehicle market contracted for the fifth straight month after Beijing scaled back much of the subsidies for battery EVs and plug-in hybrids in late June. 

Last month, some 95,000 battery EVs and plug-in hybrids were sold across China, a drop of 44 percent from a year earlier, according to the association. 

EV sales fell 41 percent to around 81,000 while plug-in hybrid deliveries tumbled 54 percent to roughly 14,000. 

The five-month contraction starting in July has nearly wiped out strong sales gains for electrified vehicles in the first six months. 

In the first 11 months, cumulative sales of EVs and plug-in hybrids in China edged up 1.3 percent to around 1.04 million. 

During the period, EV deliveries rose 5.2 percent to about 832,000 EVs while   plug-in hybrid sales dropped 12 percent to roughly 210,000. 

Until June, new-electrified vehicle sales continued to grow behind generous subsidies Beijing started in 2009. 

In the first six months, 617,000 EVs and plug-in hybrids were sold in the country, a jump of 50 percent from the same period last year. 

In 2018, annual sales of EVs and plug-in hybrids in China surged 62 percent year on year to approach 1.26 million.