SAIC Motor sees sales boom during May Day holiday

SHANGHAI - SAIC Motor, a major Chinese automaker, witnessed a sales boom in the Labor Day holiday, which was the first holiday after the novel coronavirus outbreak abated in China.

The Shanghai-based carmaker obtained over 30,000 intended customers in the first four days of the holiday that ended Tuesday, which represented a year-on-year increase of 99.1 percent.

It clinched 3,692 orders during the period, a year-on-year increase of 85.1 percent.

The company estimated that the sales in May and June, which are the traditional peak season for auto sales, will rebound from being sluggish in the first quarter.

Its auto sales plunged 55.7 percent year-on-year to 679,028 units during the January-March period, the carmaker said in mid-April.

"In order to promote automobile sales, the central and local governments have issued a slew of favorable policies, and enterprises launched promotional measures, which explored the potential of the auto consumption," said Hua Yuan, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.

SAIC Motor took a variety of new sales approaches to boost the holiday sales including launching live-streaming programs on online retail platforms, providing door-to-door service of test driving for intended customers and holding a car sales carnival at the Shanghai Exhibition Center.

SAIC Motor said Saturday it sold 433,000 vehicles in April, up 0.5 percent year-on-year. Cai Bin, assistant president of SAIC, said that as the auto sales have been recovering from the shadow of the epidemic, the company will seize the opportunity of the peak season to further boost the sales.