Auto sales in China are expected to fall for a 19th consecutive month in January, with the number of new energy vehicles (NEVs) sold contracting for a seventh month in a row, data from the country’s biggest auto industry association showed on Thursday, reported Reuters.
Total auto sales in the world’s biggest auto market are expected to fall 18% from the same month a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said.
The industry is bracing for the impact of a coronavirus epidemic that has killed more than 1,100 people by Feb. 12.
Automakers need to get used to a new normal of “low speed growth” in China, CAAM said last month, as it predicts sales are likely to shrink 2% in 2020, the third consecutive year of contraction.