China's automobile production and sales continued year-on-year drops for a fourth month in August on weak demand, an industry association said Thursday.
Auto production dropped 8.4 percent year on year to 1.57 million vehicles last month, while sales dropped 3 percent to 1.66 million, according to a China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) press release.
In the first eight months, both production and sales dropped slightly from a year earlier, as the country's economy slows and purchase restriction policies begin to bite in major cities.
Exports by Chinese automakers plunged 14.8 percent to 498,000 vehicles in the first eight months.
Bucking the trend, sales of Chinese-brand passenger vehicles saw a brisk growth of 12.2 percent in the same period, accounting for 41 percent of the total passenger car sales, up 3.5 percentage points from a year ago.
New energy vehicles saw production up by 260 percent and sales up by 270 percent from January to August, as the government promotes the use of new energy vehicles with subsidies and tax cuts in a bid to cut emissions and save energy, the CAAM said.
