Following the news that China vehicle sales fell by 11.7% in March after two months of increase, Bakar Sadik Agwan, Senior Automotive Consulting Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“In contrast to a positive jump of 18.7% in February, vehicle sales in China fell by 11.7% to 2.2 million units in March 2022, following the production and supply disruptions caused by the new wave of the COVID-19 which led to strict lockdowns across regions in the country.

“Commercial vehicles witnessed an overall decline of 43.5%. Passenger vehicles, on the other hand, declined by 0.6% as SUVs and compact cars managed to maintain volumes. GlobalData’s March edition to LV Sales Forecast also maintained a conservative growth in March (1% Y-o-Y) compared to double-digit Y-o-Y growth in February. The sales results are in line with GlobalData’s expectations.

“The ongoing COVID-19 led disruptions, chips supply constraints and macroeconomic downside risks due to ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine portrays a gloomy picture of vehicles sales in the country. Several automakers including Tesla, Nio, VW and Toyota have announced temporary halt of production starting mid-March. The production cut announced by OEMs due to supply disruptions are expected to continue to impact domestic deliveries in April. GlobalData forecasts April LV sales to grow 2% year-on-year in 2022.”