Auto sector doubling down

摘要

China recorded 2.1 million unit vehicle sales in April,up 4.4% from a year ago and ending a 21-month straight run of decline,said Xu Hai-dong,head of industrial research and vice chief engineer at the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.The sales figures are"for wholesale to distributors and the likes,not to end consumers,'noted Xu at China Rubber Conference 2020 streamed online from Beijing on 28 May.Passenger car sales stood at 1.5 million units in April,down 2.6% year-on-year,but commercial vehicle sales registered a 32% jump to a record high of 534,000 units,mostly due to cargo trucks."This means things are looking up from the manufacturing side,but the consumption side still hasn't recovered,"said Xu.Over the first four months of 2020,China's passenger car sales dipped 35% from a year ago to 4.4 million units;commercial vehicle sales fell by 12% to 1.3 million units.New-energy vehicle sales over the same period declined 43% to 205,000 units.