Chinese Retail Passenger-Car Sales Up 22% In June, NEV Sales Rocket Higher By 130.8%

Chinese auto sales saw a tick up in June as the country continues its Covid re-open and further mulls what types of EV subsidies it is going to continue with. 

Notable is that June sales increased 43.2%, while new energy vehicles were up a whopping 130.8% to 532,000 units sold, according to Bloomberg data that cites China’s Passenger Car Association.

The country’s passenger vehicle output came in at 2.2 million units, up 44.3% YOY. 

Recall, just days ago we noted the trend in NEVs when Tesla posted sales in June up 142% from the month prior. We noted then that EVs were seeing momentum in China for the month of June. 1.926 million passenger cars were sold in China in June, which is a 22% rise from last year. 

These numbers buck the trend for May, where sales were down 17% year over year. We noted in that article that last year’s sales were robust due to pull forward of demand aiming to capture EV subsidies and that this year had slowed again due to a new round of Covid lockdowns. 

In Europe, supply chain chaos continues to wreak havoc, we noted just days ago. June sales data for the UK and German new car registrations fell off a cliff and the UK saw its weakest June since 1996.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is still attributing the sales drop to the “ongoing global shortage of semiconductors” mixed with China’s implementation of severe Covid restrictions. 

EVs were the stand out there, too, however and saw a 14.6% increase in sales. They have seen their market share rise from 10.7% in June 2021 to 16.1% in June 2022 in the UK.