China's auto market saw seasonal weakness in February as the 2024 Lunar New Year holiday fell in mid-February, the CPCA noted.

China's new energy vehicle (NEV) sales will continue to plummet in February due to the Chinese New Year holiday, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

In February, retail sales of passenger NEVs in China are expected to be around 380,000 units, down 43 percent from January, according to estimates released today by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

Retail sales of passenger NEVs in January were 667,000 units, up 101.8 percent year-on-year, the CPCA said. The sales figure was slightly revised down from the 668,000 units it announced earlier this month.

The CPCA is expected to release preliminary figures for February NEV sales early next month and final figures in the middle of next month.

Survey shows that major automakers, which contribute about 80 percent of passenger car sales, lowered their retail targets by about 45 percent in February from the previous month and down about 25 percent from a year ago, the CPCA said.

According to preliminary projections, about 1.15 million units of passenger cars would be sold at retail in February, down 15.7 percent from a year earlier and down 43.5 percent lower than in January, the CPCA said.

This means that the penetration of NEVs at retail was around 33 percent, slightly higher than January's 32.8 percent.

China's auto market saw seasonal weakness in February, as the 2024 Chinese New Year holiday fell in mid-February and there are only 18 working days in the month, the CPCA noted.

Many companies took more vacations around the Lunar New Year, so the effective production and sales days for passenger cars in February were significantly lower than the same month last year, the CPCA said.

Unlike last year's month-by-month growth, this year's February will be the lowest point of the year for China's auto sales, the CPCA said. Last year's Lunar New Year holiday was from January 21-27.

The overall discount rate in China's passenger car market was about 20.3 percent in early February, with manufacturers generally keeping their original incentives unchanged ahead of the Chinese New Year, the CPCA noted.

Average daily passenger car retail sales of major automakers in the first week of February were 54,300, up 47.5 percent year-on-year and up 0.5 percent from the same period in January.

Average daily retail sales for the second week were 26,300 units, down 32.5 percent year-on-year and 55 percent lower than the same week last month.

Average daily retail sales for the third week are expected to be 28,800, a decrease of 53.9 percent year-on-year and 56.2 percent lower than the same period last month.

Average daily retail sales for the fourth week are expected to be 90,200 units, up 70.5 percent year-on-year but down 2.5 percent from the same period last month.

China EV insurance registrations in Feb 5-18: Nio 1,500, Xpeng 1,000, Li Auto 7,000, Tesla 8,200