China Car Sales Drop 0.6% in March

2026-04-10 07:09 By Chusnul Chotimah 1 min. read

China’s total vehicle sales fell 0.6% year-on-year to 2.899 million units in March 2026, after a downwardly revised 15.2% plunge in the previous month, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

February sales slumped as volumes were affected by significantly fewer working days due to the Lunar New Year holidays falling in February this year rather than January last year.

Of that total, overall vehicle exports surged 72.7% yoy to 875 thousand units.

Meanwhile, new energy vehicle (NEV) sales rose 1.2% yoy in March, accounting for 43.2% of new car sales.

For the first quarter of the year, car sales dropped 5.6% yoy, sharply reversing an 11.2% jump in the same period in 2025, with NEV sales declining 3.7% in Q1 2026.

However, car sales surged 60.6% from a month earlier.

In 2025, China’s vehicle sales grew 9.4% year-on-year to a record high of 34.4 million units, accelerating from 4.5% in the previous year, with NEV sales surging 28.2%.



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