Chinese Passenger Car Sales Down 17% Year Over Year

While Chinese passenger car sales look like they might bump higher sequentially for May, the country’s sales numbers are still down year over year.

Sales are supposed to be down 17% year over year, according to Bloomberg and preliminary data from the China Passenger Car Association.

This marks a 30% rise from April, totaling 1.35 million units sold.

China continues to face tough comps, as last year’s demand was robust due to pull forward of demand aiming to capture EV subsidies and this year has slowed again due to a new round of Covid lockdowns. 

Things aren’t going phenomenally for the global auto market in other countries, either. In Europe, we just noted that sales plunged by 20% in April, marking the 10th month in a row that sales fell. 

At the time, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association noted that it was the steepest decline this year. The losing streak continues months after Goldman had opined that European automakers had already priced in a “stressed” scenario. 

And in the U.S. we noted that May showed a marked slowdown in auto sales, as well. Companies like Honda and Mazda saw sales plunge between 27% and 63% year over year. As we noted, the lack of stimmy money and unemployment check bonuses, combined with the fact that rates are rising and spending is slowing, made for a tumultuous May report for some of the most well known legacy auto manufacturers. 

It’s sure going to be tough to keep the melt-up in auto prices going with sales slowing down so much. Over the last year, both new and used car prices have soared amidst growing demand and a gummed up supply chain that’s keeping inventory sparse. With demand starting to falter and supply woes starting to ease, we wouldn’t be surprised to see prices start to come back down toward Earth…