China's auto sales up 4.5% in first 11 months

BEIJING -- China's auto sales rose 4.5 percent year on year to nearly 23.49 million units in the first 11 months of 2021, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) showed Friday.

Meanwhile, auto production rose 3.5 percent year on year to 23.17 million units, according to the data.

The better-than-expected performance of the auto industry came as the country's measures to ensure adequate power supply and stabilize raw material prices have taken effect, the association said.

In November alone, auto sales totaled about 2.52 million units, down 9.1 percent year on year.

Sales of passenger vehicles went down 4.7 percent year on year to over 2.19 million units in November, according to the data.

However, sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) in November rocketed 121.1 percent year on year to about 450,000 units.

In the January-November period, NEV sales amounted to about 2.99 million units, surging by 166.8 percent year on year and accounting for 12.7 percent of the total sales of new vehicles., the CAAM data showed.

China aims to raise the proportion of NEVs in its sales of new vehicles to 20 percent by 2025, according to a development plan for China's NEV industry released in 2020.