(Yicai) Oct. 11 — China’s car consumption keeps recovering after last month, partly due to the cooling real estate market, according to the head of an industry association who condemned the European Union’s latest anti-subsidy probe.
As the property market consolidated in the past two years, the squeeze on households’ disposable income is gradually easing, which benefits the upward tendency of the automobile market in the fall, Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association, said during a conference today.
The CPCA chief mentioned the EU’s anti-subsidy probe targeting Chinese NEV manufacturers, initiated on Oct. 4. The double-standards investigation is essentially a hindrance to curb the rise of Chinese technologies, violating the World Trade Organization’s rules of fair treatment, Cui said.
The EU should objectively view the development of China’s NEV industry instead of arbitrarily using unilateral economic and trade tools to prevent the growth of Chinese electric vehicle firms in Europe, hiking their operating costs, he added.
Sales in China are rising. The retail volume of passenger vehicles grew by 5 percent to 2 million units last month from a year earlier. This year, the sum has risen by 2 percent to 15.2 million units from a year ago. That of new energy vehicles jumped by 22 percent to 746,000 units last month and the figure for this year is 5.2 million units, up by 34 percent.
Traditional automakers, represented by Changan Auto, SAIC Motor, GAC Group and Geely, have shown their resilience in NEVs, the CPCA pointed out. Wholesale numbers of 17 carmakers exceeded 10,000 units last month. BYD led the pack with more than 286,900 units while Tesla logged over 74,070 units and Geely recorded almost 53,700 cars.
In September, 357,000 passenger vehicles were exported, up by 50 percent from a year ago. In the first nine months of this year, nearly