China’s car sales pick up speed in ‘Golden September’
BEIJING (Reuters) – Car sales in China accelerated in September, the traditional peak season for the auto market, as dealers and consumers took advantage of recovery subsidies before more local governments suspended incentives.
Domestic car sales rose 6.6 percent year-on-year to 2.27 million units, following a 4.9 percent increase in August, according to data released Monday by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
Sales of electric and hybrid vehicles accounted for 57.2% of total sales and increased 15.5%, compared to 7.5% in August.
This time of year, known as “Golden September” in China, is typically peak season, as automakers rush to launch new models and consumers return to showrooms after a lull during the sweltering summer months.
Local government-subsidized trade-ins boosted car sales in the first half, but are showing signs of slowing due to a lack of financing.
The eastern province of Jiangsu and the southwestern region of Guangxi were among those announcing last month that they would suspend local auto replacement subsidy programs. Other cities such as Wenzhou and Hangzhou in China’s Zhejiang province joined the suspension this month.
The sales growth was also explained by the fact that dealers increased their inventories last month. Data from the China Automobile Dealers Association showed that dealers had a total of 3.04 million units of cars in their inventory at the end of September, up from 2.6 million a month ago.
Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the CPCA, last week called for financial policies to support dealers who suffered huge losses from new car sales while automakers continued to dump inventory on them despite lukewarm demand.
Major player BYD last month recorded the first monthly decline in car sales since February 2024, alongside a further reduction in production. BYD’s sales in its domestic market accounted for 14% of China’s domestic car sales in September, compared to 18% during the same period in 2024.
Smaller domestic rivals including Geely, Leapmotor, Xpeng and Xiaomi outperformed BYD with record sales last month.
Tesla, which exported 19,287 Chinese-made electric vehicles in September, saw its sales in China fall 0.9% from a year earlier, extending its losing streak into the third month.
Growth in China’s auto exports accelerated to 20.7% from 20.2% in August, according to CPCA data.
(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li, Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; editing by Tom Hogue and Kate Mayberry)
