According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), China’s automobile sales in the first month of 2019 dropped 15.8% from last year.
This was the seventh straight month of declining sales in the world’s largest auto market, following a 13% fall in December and a 14% drop in November, according to CNBC. The annual fall in auto sales recorded in 2018 was the first in more than two decades.
Beijing has been struggling with slowing economic growth along with the effects of the US-China trade war and is now attempting to convince consumers to loosen their purse strings by pledging to provide subsidies for the purchase of new-energy vehicles and to increase auto sales in rural areas.
While overall auto sales have fallen, new-energy vehicles have bucked the trend, with sales totaling 95,700 in January, a year-on-year increase of 140%, said CAAM.