Shanghai (ZXZC)- China auto sales in February plunged 79.1% year on year to only 310,000 units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), but it is not at all surprising after we heard of too many slumps announced by automakers, which all suffered a coldest ever month hit by the coronavirus.

For the first two months, auto sales in this country tumbled 42% from the year-ago period. Apart from the coronavirus, the Spring Festival holiday was another key factor that brought down the whole volume.

The close-knit industrial chain was shut off due to the epidemic. Automakers and suppliers generally deferred the resumption of their manufacturing businesses, which no doubt resulted in the flagging outputs. Last month, only 285,000 vehicles were produced countrywide, a significant year-on-year slide of 79.8%, said the association.

The downturn in PV sales was much higher than that of CVs. Within the PV sector, the SUV was the least-hit unit in terms of both Feb. and year-to-date performance. Regarding the concrete volume, the SUV also outsold the car so far this year.

I think you must be mentally prepared what happened to the NEV market. The CAAM stated NEV outputs and sales were only 8,342 units and 10,680 units in Feb., collapsing 82.9% and 75.2% from a year ago. Moreover, the year's cumulative outputs and sales reached 53,840 units (-63.8%) and 59,705 units (-59.5%), of which the volumes for fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) stood at 145 units and 171 units, down by 24.5% and 8.6% respectively.