Retail sales of new passenger vehicles in China declined by 3.4% to 2.14 million units in December 2019 from very weak sales of 2.22 million units in the same month of the previous year, according to preliminary data released by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). The December decline was the 18th in the last 19 months, and brought the full year total to 20.69 million units, down 7.4% year on year. The data covers passenger cars, SUVs, and MPVs.
This followed a 5.8% drop to 22.35 million units in 2018. Dealer inventories were also said to have been reduced by 250,000 units last year. The association expect the passenger vehicle market to have bottomed out this year with retail sales forecast to rise slightly to around 21 million units in 2020 after a slow start to the year.
This
would include 13.6 million passenger vehicle replacements with existing
owners increasingly attracted to the market by more frequent model upgrades and
new technology.
