China Association of Automobile Manufacturers had lowered its forecast for China’s 2019 new-vehicle sales to 26.68 million, a 4.7 percent decline from 2018’s total, according to the trade group’s monthly Auto Review publication.
The association early this year had predicted new-vehicle sales would remain at the 2018 level of 28 million.
The association expects new light-vehicle sales in China to decline 5.4 percent to 22.44 million and new commercial-vehicle deliveries to dip 3 percent to 4.24 million.
It also expects sales of electrified vehicles, which include full-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles, to jump 19 percent to around 1.5 million.
The association lowered its forecast after the domestic new-vehicle market posted worse-than-expected sales for the first six months of the year, according to Auto Review, published this week.
In the first half, new-vehicle sales in China fell 12 percent year on year to 12.3 million.
In the period, new light-vehicle sales slumped 14 percent to 10.1 million while new commercial-vehicle deliveries dipped 4.1 percent to 2.2 million. Electrified vehicle sales surged 57 percent to roughly 617,000.
