Car sales in China rose sharply in February

Car sales in China continued to grow last month, representing the 11th consecutive month of growth, with a year-on-year growth rate of 365 percent. This was stated on Wednesday by the China Automobile Manufacturers Association (CAAM). A total of 1.46 million cars were sold in the world's largest car market in February, CAAM said. The sharp growth was due to developments in February last year, when China struggled with the spread of the new coronavirus and the quarantine measures taken reduced car sales by about 80 percent. According to CAAM, 110,000 were sold in February for so-called new energy vehicles (NEVs), which include electric cars, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen-powered cars. This represents a year-on-year increase of 585 percent. Manufacturers of these cars, such as the domestic Nio and Xpeng, or the American Tesla, are also continuing to increase production capacity in China. This is made possible by the Chinese government, which is trying to solve the problem of heavily polluted air in Chinese cities. CAAM expects car sales to increase by about 4 percent this year. The problem is the current shortage of some chips needed in the production of vehicles, but in the 2nd quarter the situation should improve.