China’s passenger car sales dropped in March, but its EV market continues to rally, according to the figures from China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). 

CPCA also predicts that the April sales would be far lower than March for passenger car sales due to the pandemic and the three-day public holiday of Qingming Festival in early April, according to a Yicai Global report on April 11.

CPCA’s statistics show that in March, retail sales dropped almost 11 percent to 1.6 million from a year earlier, but the figure was nearly 26 percent higher than in February.

Not all segments are lackluster. The electric vehicle market is rallying due to vehicle electrification and replacements of gas-powered vehicles, according to the CPCA. Electric car sales more than doubled to 445,000 units in March from a year ago. The volume increased by 63 percent from February, posing the largest month-on-month boost ever seen in March, Yicai Global reported.

Wholesale numbers are in line with retail sales. Last month, Chinese manufacturers logged wholesale figures of 1.8 million cars, sliding almost 2 percent from a year ago. The number climbed nearly 24 percent from a month earlier.

Meanwhile, wholesale volumes of electric vehicles reached 455,000, up 122 percent from a year ago. The number rose nearly 44 percent from February.

Yicai Global also said that China’s automobile export slowed because of the unstable external environment and carmakers’ reduced exports to Europe. Chinese manufacturers shipped 107,000 passenger cars abroad in March, up 14 percent from a year ago but still 20 percent less than the number recorded in February.

In terms of production, China manufactured 1.8 million passenger cars in March, down 0.3 percent from a year earlier. However, the volume was 22 percent up from a month earlier.

From January to March, China’s retail sales of automobiles fell by nearly 5 percent year on year to 4.9 million, lower than expected, according to the CPCA.