China LV Sales
May 2023
After a sluggish January and February, the Chinese market rebounded in March. Light Vehicle (LV) wholesales increased to 2.38mn units, which is a growth of 8% year-on-year (YoY). At a component level, Passenger Vehicle (PV) wholesales achieved a total of 2.06 mn units, an increase of 10% YoY while Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) wholesales grew to 322k units, a small uptick of 1% YoY. But it is worth noting that Q1 LV wholesales decreased by 7% due to the sluggish nature of both January and February. On the production side, the total LV figure in March was also 2.45 million units, increasing by 15% YoY and 26% MoM, while Q1 LV production was down by 4% YoY. At the vehicle type level, PV production in March increased by 15% YoY while cumulative PV production up to March decreased by 4% YoY, the same situation as LV overall. LCV output was 319k units, up 12% YoY but down by 7% in Q1. Hence neither production nor sales experienced positive growth in the first quarter of 2023. The March selling rate reached a 5-month high of 26.3 mn units/year, up nearly 26% from an abnormally weak February. That, however, brought the YTD average selling rate to only 23.6 mn units/year. In YoY terms, sales (i.e., wholesales) increased by 8.6% in March but declined by 6.7% in Q1.
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