Auto industry pulls out stops to tackle slumping sales

Lukewarm car sales continues

China's vehicle sales are expected to fall by 8 percent year-on-year in 2019, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. In the first 11 months of this year, 23.11 million vehicles were sold in the country, falling 9.1 percent from the same period last year. The association will release annual sales statistics in early January. The fall in 2019 comes after a 2.8 dip in 2018, which represented the first fall in China since the 1990s.

The association expects the downward trend to continue well into 2020, with estimated sales in the new year to reach 25.31 million vehicles, down 2 percent from 2019, as a result of the slowing economy and trade tensions between China and the United States.

It said China's auto sales will continue to fall or remain flat until 2022 but a 3-5 percent growth can be expected from 2023 to 2025.