New-vehicle demand in China remained sluggish in the first 26 days of March after Beijing phased out a decade-long subsidy program for electrified vehicles and terminated a six-month long cut in the sales tax on gasoline cars in December.
In the first several weeks of March, retail sales of new passenger vehicles including sedans, crossovers, SUVs and multi-purpose vehicles across China slid one percent from a year earlier to 1.02 million, the China Automobile Dealers Association said Wednesday.
A decline occured at the wholesale level during the 26-day period: shipments by car manufacturers industrywide dropped 8 percent to below 1.15 million.
As of March, retail new-car sales slipped 15 percent to roughly 3.7 million, while new-car shipments fell 14 to 4.21 million, according to the trade group’s tally.
