China NEV retail at 442,000 in Jul 1-23, down 2% from same period last month. China's new energy vehicle (NEV) sales improved last week, narrowing the month-to-date decline slightly.

From July 1 to July 23, retail sales of passenger NEVs in China were 442,000 units, up 23 percent from a year earlier but down 2 percent from a month ago. By comparison, retail sales of passenger NEVs in China from July 1 to July 16 were 267,000 units, down 3 percent from the same period last month.

So far this year, China's retail sales of passenger NEVs totaled 3.528 million units, up 35 percent from a year earlier. From July 1 to July 23, China's wholesale sales of passenger NEVs were 493,000 units, up 18 percent year-on-year and up 5 percent from the same period in June. Year-to-date wholesale sales of passenger NEVs stood at 4.037 million units, up 40 percent year-on-year.

Between July 1 and 23, retail sales of all passenger cars in China were 1.122 million units, up 2 percent year-on-year, but down 7 percent from the same period last month. So far this year, cumulative retail sales of passenger cars in China were up 3 percent year-on-year to 10.646 million units.

That means that on July 1, July 23, China's penetration of NEVs at retail was 39.3 percent, and 33.1 percent so far this year.

In July last year, mainstream fuel vehicles had the support of the purchase tax halving policy, so sales got a boost, while this year the policy is no longer available, so the year-on-year decline at the beginning of the month is normal.

July is traditionally a slow season for the auto market, and the hot weather restrained consumers from visiting stores to some extent.