Mubasher: China’s vehicle sales rose for the seventh consecutive month in December and for the full-year 2017, data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) on Thursday showed.
December’s sales increased 0.1% to 3.06 million vehicles from a year earlier.
New-energy vehicle (NEV) sales surged 56.8% on an annual basis in December to around 163,000 vehicles, driven by the government’s support for the sector.
Data for the final month of 2017, pushed the full year’s sales higher by 3% year-on-year to 28.88 million, which was the slowest rise in recent years.
Forecasts in the beginning of 2017 had suggested a 5% annual growth for overall vehicle sales during the year.
In 2017, Chinese passenger-car sales grew 1.4% to 24.72 million after jumping 15% in 2016, while electric-vehicle sales were up 53% to 777,000, the data showed.
Sales were hit by an increase in China's auto sales tax to 7.5% from 5% at the start of 2017. A second hike to the tax bringing it to 10% in January may also impact sales in the first quarter of 2018.