Growth in China’s car sales slowed in March as car buyers hesitated to make purchases amid a price war among major car makers and as they awaited more government incentives.
Car makers and dealers sold 1.59 million passenger cars last month, the China Passenger Car Association said Monday. Growth in passenger car sales slowed to 0.3% in March from 10.4% in February.
Sales in the first quarter declined 13.4% from a year earlier, mainly due to a 38% plunge in January.
Retail sales of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, referred to as new-energy vehicles by the association, rose 21.9% from a year earlier in March to 543,000 vehicles.
Tesla Inc.’s Shanghai plant delivered more than 88,800 Model 3s and Model Ys last month, the association said. Tesla China sold more than 229,000 EVs in the first quarter, 40% of which were exported to markets outside China, data from the association showed.
Write to Bingyan Wang at bingyan.wang@wsj.com and Raffaele Huang at raffaele.huang@wsj.com
This post was originally published on Market Watch
