BEIJING, March 8 (TMTPOST)— Latest data showed new energy new energy vehicles (NEVs) remained a key drive for the whole auto industry’s sales in China even in the traditional off-season, when the Chinese New Year came in.

Source: Visual China

In February, retail sales of passenger vehicles in China jumped 4.2% from a year ago to 1.246 million units, including 272,000 NEVs, including battery electric vehicles (BEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and other non-fossil fuel-powered vehicles, representing a year-over-year (YoY) increase of 180.5% in monthly sales, according to China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). Sales of passenger vehicles and and NEVs decreased 40% and 22.6% from the previous month respectively, however, NEVs kept a robust triple-digit YoY sales growth as it soared 132% in January.

The overall sales of passenger vehicles demonstrated a relatively strong trend in February since the first two months this year saw a total of 3.324 million units sold across the country, suggesting a YoY decline of just 60,000 units even this year’s Spring Festival, a seven-day national holiday came 12 days earlier than last year, CPCA noted on Tuesday.

CPCA estimated both the retail market penetration rate of NEV and the wholesale market penetration rate were 19.1% last month, increasing 13 percentage points and 12.2 percentage points from a year earlier respectively.

The auto market will recover slowly in March due to surging COVID-19 cases and other factors, expected Cui Dongshu, the secretary general of CPCA at a news conference Tuesday. Cui didn’t think the recent cost surge of materials and the price rise of many NEV makers would impose significant impact on sales. On the one hand, passenger vehicles have rigid demand, especially in the post-pandemic period which forced Chinese families to move away from public transportation, and on the other hand, the current price hikes seemed still acceptable for consumers, Cui explained.

As to the recent boom of nickel price, which soared as much as more than 110% intraday prior to the London Metal Exchange (LME)’s halt of trading on Tuesday, Cui said it won’t have major affect on domestic auto sales. But he admitted the automakers had to bear more pressure cost for nickel is a widely used mineral for electric vehicle batteries. Cui also noted conflictions between Russia and Ukraine posed major pressure for Chinese automakers as they exported a large amount of vehicles to Russia.