July is traditionally a slow season for the auto market, with hot weather restricting consumers from visiting stores, the CPCA said.

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

China's new energy vehicle (NEV) sales improved last week, narrowing the month-to-date decline slightly.

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From July 1 to July 23, retail sales of passenger NEVs in China were 442,000 units, up 23 percent from a year earlier but down 2 percent from a month ago, data released today by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed.

By comparison, retail sales of passenger NEVs in China from July 1 to July 16 were 267,000 units, down 3 percent from the same period last month.

So far this year, China's retail sales of passenger NEVs totaled 3.528 million units, up 35 percent from a year earlier.

From July 1 to July 23, China's wholesale sales of passenger NEVs were 493,000 units, up 18 percent year-on-year and up 5 percent from the same period in June, according to the CPCA.

Year-to-date wholesale sales of passenger NEVs stood at 4.037 million units, up 40 percent year-on-year.

Between July 1 and 23, retail sales of all passenger cars in China were 1.122 million units, up 2 percent year-on-year, but down 7 percent from the same period last month, the CPCA said.

So far this year, cumulative retail sales of passenger cars in China were up 3 percent year-on-year to 10.646 million units.

That means that on July 1, July 23, China's penetration of NEVs at retail was 39.3 percent, and 33.1 percent so far this year.

In the first week of July -- July 1 to July 9 -- China's average daily passenger car retail sales were 36,825 units, down 7 percent from a year ago and 2 percent lower than the same period last month.

In the second week of July -- July 10 to 16 -- average daily retail sales of passenger cars were 506.04 million units, up 7 percent from a year earlier but down 5 percent from the same period in June.

In the third week of July -- July 17 to 23, the average daily retail sales of passenger cars were 623.26 million units, up 5 percent year-on-year but down 11 percent compared with the same period in June.

In July last year, mainstream fuel vehicles had the support of the purchase tax halving policy, so sales got a boost, while this year the policy is no longer available, so the year-on-year decline at the beginning of the month is normal, the CPCA said.

July is traditionally a slow season for the auto market, and the hot weather restrained consumers from visiting stores to some extent, the CPCA said.

Data table: China NEV sales in Jul 1-23