China monthly car sales pick up in April; EV sales double

HONG KONG — An industry group says Chinese passenger car sales expanded at a faster pace last month as growth in the world’s biggest auto market picked up steam.

Monthly figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released Friday show that passenger cars sales in April rose 11 per cent over a year earlier to 1.9 million vehicles, outpacing a 3.5 per cent growth rate in March.

Sales of “new-energy vehicles” such as electric cars and gasoline-electric hybrids more than doubled to 82,000.

Total vehicle sales including trucks and buses rose 11.5 per cent to 2.3 million.

The latest numbers are an improvement on uneven sales earlier this year and a lacklustre performance last year that came as sales growth returned to more normal levels following a surge in 2016 driven by tax cuts.