After the heavy drop (-35%) in January, the recovery of the Chinese market continued in March as regards the sales of new vehicles, which had already returned to a positive trend in February. With 2,451,000 new registrations last month, sales actually grew by 9.7% on an annual basis, recording a negative sign only for minivans (-53.9% to 21,000 units). Deliveries of commercial vehicles were also positive (+17.3%, 434 thousand units). Sales of alternative energy vehicles (NEV) also grew in March: +34.8% to 653,000 units. Among these, 618,000 electrified cars (+34.1%) were registered in the passenger car segment: 456,000 battery electric cars (BEV), up 22.1% on an annual basis, and 162,000 plug-in hybrids (+85.0%). 4%).
Domestic production was also positive in the month that has just ended: +15.3% to almost 2.6 million units compared to the same month in 2022. Following the strong negative result in January, the market remains negative in the first quarter cumulative: -6.7% to just over 6 million units, with a decrease for all segments of passenger cars – with the sole exception of MPVs – as well as for commercial vehicles. The same trend for domestic production, which closes the cumulative down by 4.2% to 6.2 million vehicles.