This was up 27 percent from February, but below the CPCA's estimate of around 560,000 units announced in late March.

In the first quarter, retail sales of all passenger vehicles in China were 4.275 million units, down 13 percent year-on-year.

Wholesale sales of passenger vehicles in China were 1.955 million units in March, up 7 percent year-on-year and up 22 percent from February.

In the first quarter, China's passenger car wholesale sales were 5.021 million units, down 8 percent year-on-year.

With a large number of car companies stepping up their promotions in March, demand for cars was concentrated, putting pressure on the normal order of the market, the CPCA said.

From the performance of the first four weeks of March, the conversion rate of customer traffic is not high, consumers were in a wait-and-see mood, and the overall demand was weak, the CPCA said.

Here are the CPCA's weekly retail sales data for the Chinese passenger vehicle market in March, as announced today:

Average daily retail sales of passenger vehicles in the first week of March were 31,000 units, down 16 percent year-on-year and down 14 percent from the same period in February.

Average daily sales for the second week of March were 37,000 units, down 18 percent year-on-year and down 8 percent from the same period in February.

Average daily sales for the third week of March were 41,000 units, up 10 percent year-on-year and up 7 percent from the same period in February.

Average daily sales for the fourth week of March were 46,000 units, up 18 percent year-on-year but down 35 percent from the same period in February.

Sales for the fifth week of March were reported at 115,000 units, up 3 percent year-on-year and up 63 percent from the same period in February.

China NEV insurance registrations for week ending April 2: BYD 46,218, Tesla 14,275, NIO 2,730