BEIJING (Reuters) -Passenger car sales in China fell 35.7% in April, data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed on Tuesday, as efforts to combat COVID-19 in the world’s largest vehicle market shut factories, impacted logistics and sapped demand.
It was the biggest monthly drop since March 2020, the height of country’s initial coronavirus outbreak, when sales fell 40% year-on-year, CPCA said.
China’s zero COVID policies have disrupted entire supply chains with analysts at Nomura estimating in mid-April that 45 cities, representing 40% of the country’s GDP, were under full or partial lockdowns.
Production of, and demand for, luxury cars was badly hit, with sales falling 54%, CPCA said. Sales of new energy vehicles, in comparison, rose 50.1% year on year as customers rushed to place orders, anticipating that automakers may raise prices. BYD in particular saw strong sales, CPCA added.
U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc produced 10,757 China-made vehicles in April and sold 1,512 of these, the fewest since April 2020 and compared with the 65,814 cars it sold in March this year.
(Reporting by Brenda Goh, Sophie Yu and Zhang Yan; editing by Louise Heavens, Kirsten Donovan)
