China's auto sales to remain level with last year

BEIJING - Automobile sales in China will be around 28.1 million units this year, flat from the 2018 level, according to a new report on China's auto industry.

Sales of passenger vehicles will be about 23.7 million units, a similar amount compared with last year, said the report jointly released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and other parties.

Among the total, sales of new energy vehicles (NEV) this year may rise to 1.6 million units from 1.26 million units in 2018, an increase of about 27 percent, the report said.

Although auto sales in China dropped 2.8 percent to 28.08 million units last year, the country still accounted for 30.6 percent of the global market, the report said.

By the end of last year, China had stayed the world's largest auto market for 10 consecutive years.

NEV sales jumped by 61.7 percent last year to 1.26 million units last year on the back of favorable government policies, representing 60 percent of global NEV sales, the report said.