Chinese sales of new energy vehicles near 1 million mark

Thanks to purchase subsidies, Chinese sales of so-called New Energy vehicles came within sight of topping the million units mark for a month in October, Share Cafe reports.

According to official data released from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), a total of 956,000 NEVs were solid in October, up a modest 5.75% from September's previous record of 904,000.

That was up 34% from October 2022 when an impressive 714,000 units were sold in what was to be the second last month of subsides from the central, provincial and local governments.

Those subsidies ended last December, but were restarted in early 2023 when it became clear consumers were becoming reluctant to buy NEVs without some sort of help.

Those subsidies have seen a strong pick up in sales, helped at various times this year by price cuts from the likes of tesla, BYD and Nio.

Now, more importantly, pure battery powered cars accounted for two thirds of all sales in October, easily topping sales of plug in hybrids.

NEV sales again grew faster than the wider market in October and confirmed that for yet another month, total industry sales would have fallen without the extra sales of the new types of vehicles

China's all vehicle sales in October totalled 2,853 million, up 1.5% year-on-year but 0.2% lower than in September.