China's new energy vehicle sales double in October

BEIJING — Sales of new energy vehicles in China more than doubled in October, while overall auto sales grew steadily, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) showed Friday.

Some 92,000 new energy vehicles were produced in October, up 85.9 percent year-on-year, and 91,000 were sold, up 106.7 percent from October 2016, according to CAAM.

Total auto sales remained stable, with some 2.7 million vehicles sold last month, up 2 percent year-on-year. But growth slowed from the 5.7 percent growth in September.

Meanwhile, a total of 2.6 million auto vehicles were produced in October, up 0.7 percent from the same period last year.

However, on a month-on-month basis, auto sales dropped 0.2 percent, while auto production was down 2.5 percent in October.

In the first ten months of the year, auto output and sales increased by 4.3 percent and 4.1 percent year-on-year to 22.96 million and 22.93 million, respectively.

The robust growth came as China has intensified efforts to encourage the use of new energy vehicles to ease pressure on the environment, by offering tax exemptions and discounts for car purchases, and ordering government organizations to buy more new energy cars.

In the latest move, Chinese banking authorities announced new loan policies to allow buyers of new-energy vehicles to borrow a larger portion of the purchase price.

Starting in 2018, NEV buyers can borrow up to 85 percent of the cost from banks, up from the previous 80 percent.