China's car sales fell for the third year in a row

China's car sales fell for the third year in a row

China's car sales fell for the third year in a row in view of the slump in sales at the start of the year due to the 2020 corona pandemic. According to the data from the Chinese manufacturers' association, the strong recovery since summer could not compensate for the decline. Overall, sales on the world's largest car market plummeted by 6.8 percent. A total of 19.6 million vehicles were handed over to customers last year. The Chinese market is by far the most important single market for Volkswagen (including the subsidiaries Audi and Porsche) as well as Daimler and BMW. The market had already shrunk in 2018 and 2019 after decades of growth. The prospects for the new year are good. According to the association, growth will be strong in 2021, and last month it had announced a plus of seven percent for this year. The prospects for the market for electric cars are particularly good. In December alone, sales of electrified cars rose by 58 percent to 206,000 units. The background to the boom are further government incentives to buy. Beijing wants to increase the proportion of electrified vehicles in total car sales to 20 percent by 2025 from around 5 percent currently. Many support payments are to be cut by a fifth this year and will expire completely by 2022.