In January-February, China's vehicle sales decreased by 15.2 percent year-on-year while NEV sales increased by 20.8 percent year-on-year.

China saw new energy vehicle (NEV) sales of 525,000 units in February, up 55.9 percent year-on-year and up 28.7 percent from January, according to data released today by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

The CAAM figures are wholesale sales by vehicle companies, where NEVs include battery electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) and fuel cell vehicles.

China generated sales of 376,000 BEVs in February, up 43.9 percent year-on-year. PHEV sales were 149,000 units, up 98.0 percent year-on-year. Sales of fuel cell vehicles were 40 units, down 77.5 percent year-on-year.

Sales of all vehicles in China were 1.976 million units in February, up 13.5 percent year-on-year and up 19.83 percent from January.

This means that the penetration rate of NEVs in China by the CAAM figures was 26.6 percent in February, up 1.9 percentage points from 24.7 in January.

Production of NEVs in China was 552,000 units in February, up 48.8 percent year-on-year and up 29.9 percent from January.

Production of all vehicles in China in February was 2,032,000 units, up 11.9 percent year-on-year and 27.5 percent from January.

It is worth noting that last year, February 1-6 was the New Year's holiday, which caused disruptions to sales and production at that time. This year, that holiday was January 21-27.

Because the Chinese New Year holiday fell in the same month last year and in January this year, and some local governments introduced policies to boost auto consumption last month, China's auto production and sales increased significantly in February, the CAAM said.

In February, 329,000 vehicles were exported from China, up 82.2 percent year-on-year and up 9.4 percent from January.

Among them, exports of NEVs were 87,000 units, up 79.5 percent year-on-year and up 5.3 percent from January.

In January-February, China's vehicle sales were 3.625 million units, down 15.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the CAAM.

NEVs sold 933,000 units in January-February, up 20.8 percent year-on-year, with a market share of 25.7 percent.

In the first two months, sales of models priced at RMB 150,000 ($21,540) to RMB 250,000 and those priced at RMB 350,000 to RMB 500,000 increased year-on-year, while sales of models in other price segments declined.

For conventional internal combustion engine vehicles, sales of models in the price range of RMB 300,000 to RMB 350,000 increased year-on-year in January-February, while sales of models in all other price ranges declined.

($1 = RMB 6.9624)

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