China auto sales soar in October off strong electric vehicle demand

The China Passenger Car Association Sales reported on Wednesday that passenger car sales rose 10.2% year-over-year in October. The jump in China auto sales was aided by a higher level of promotions during the month and the comparison to a year ago when production was still being impacted by COVID shutdowns. Notably, exports were up 50% during the month. So far this year, auto sales in China have climbed 3.2% to just under 17.3M units.

Sales of electric and hybrid vehicles climbed 37.5% from a year earlier to account for 767K of the 2.03M vehicles sold in October. Chinese automaker BYD Company Limited (OTCPK:BYDDF) was the leader in sales of new energy battery of electric vehicles by far, with 63,965 Song model sedans its best seller during the month. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) delivered 47,164 Model Y vehicles and 24,951 Model 3s made at its Shanghai plant during the month, per CPCA data.

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