April sees dip in car sales with 2017 overall maintaining growth

China sold 2.08 million cars in April, a 2.2 percent dip compared to April of last year, according to statistics released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on May 11.

Total car sales in the first four months of the year reached 9.08 million, a 4.6 percent growth year-on-year.

CAAM estimated earlier this year that China's automotive market would grow by around 5 percent in 2017.

SUVs continued their popularity in April, with 684,000 units sold, up 11 percent, while sedans, MPVs and crossovers fell.

In total, 1.72 million passenger cars were sold in April, a 3.7 percent fall year-on-year. Of those, cars from Chinese brands accounted for 42.6 percent, the lowest figure so far this year.

Commercial vehicle sales stood at 362,000 units in April, a 5.3 percent growth compared to last year. So far this year 1.41 million commercial vehicles were sold, up 17.7 percent.

New energy vehicles also saw strong sales. More than 34,300 electric cars, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell cars were sold last month, a 7.9 percent rise from the same period last year. Of them, 30,478 units were passenger cars, a 45.2 percent surge.

So far in 2017, more than 90,400 new energy cars were sold, a 0.2 percent dip year-on-year. Electric cars took the lion's share, totaling 72,895 units, up 9.7 percent, while plug-in hybrid sales reached 17,507 units, down 27.4 percent.