Beijing (ZXZC)- Thanks to the improved automotive supply chain, China’s auto sales decline narrowed in October, an industry association said today.

Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) showed that the biggest automotive market in the world produced and sold 2.33 million and 2.333 million vehicles in October, up 12.2% and 12.8% month on month but down 8.8% and 9.4% year on year. The monthly sales decline was 10.2 percentage points fewer than that of September. Compared with the same month of 2019, the October sales represented an increase of 1.5%.

By the end of October, the market’s year-to-date vehicle sales totaled 20.97 million vehicles, growing 6.4% versus last year, 2.3 percentage points fewer than that of the first nine months. Compared with the same span of 2019, that represented an increase of 1.4%.

Passenger vehicles (PV) were the main driver for the narrower decline. The segment’s outputs and sales stood at 1.988 million and 2.007 million vehicles, down by 4.7% and 5.0% from a year ago, 9.2 and 11.5 percentage points respectively fewer than the previous month.

Chinese auto brands’ PV market share continued to grow. The combined PV sales of local brands increased by 9.2% from a year ago to 952,000 units in October, accounting for 47.5% of the segment. The October share represented an increase of 0.6 percentage points from a month ago and 6.2 percentage points from a year earlier.

As of the end of October, local brands’ year-to-date PV sales totaled 7.387 million vehicles, jumping 28% versus last year and taking up 43.8% of the PV market, 6.6 percentage points more compared with the same period last year.

Monthly sales of China-made luxury vehicles stopped decrease in October and jumped 12.9% year on year to 303,000 vehicles. The total sales of locally-made luxury vehicles in the first ten months reached 2.793 million vehicles, 21.7% more than the volume of the same period of last year.

Commercial vehicle segment saw decline in both year-to-date sales and outputs. In the first ten months of this year, the country sold 4.099 million commercial vehicles, down by 2.5% from a year ago but increased by 17.8% versus the same period of 2019.

Both production and sales volume of new energy vehicles (NEVs) hit new record highs in October. Battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles all had the highest monthly sales. The sales of fuel cell vehicles were 47 units, falling 40.5% year on year. The penetration rate of NEVs remained high in October with a share of 16.4% while the share of new energy passenger vehicles reached 18.2%.

The export volume of China-made vehicles reached a new record of 231,000 units, jumping 33.8% month on month and surging 110% year on year. The PV export soared 130% from a year ago to 198,000 vehicles while NEVs contributed 43.3% to the total volume. The year-to-date export of the country more than doubled to 1.594 million vehicles.

The association said that due to the relatively high base of last year, automakers will face great pressure in the last two months. The association expects China’s annual vehicle sales will see a slight increase, but will be lower than expected.