With lockdowns lifting in China, car buyers are coming back in droves. Maybe the same thing will happen everywhere else.
During the peak of the pandemic crisis, car sales in China were down as much as 96%. In March, they were still low but had recovered to 40% below a year earlier. The China Passenger Car Association believes sales in the overall vehicle market will rebound to last year’s level by the end of April.
And, in further good news (particularly for the planet), Ipsos, a marketing research firm, surveyed first-time car buyers in March and discovered that 41% of those new buyers have a preference for EVs.
On the other hand, It’s concerning that Chinese car buyers are switching from public transit to personal vehicles.
However, that process was already underway. Now it appears to be accelerating. This is occurring just as production of new EVs from Tesla, Volkswagen, Byton, General Motors, and others, are ramping up. They are the best crop of long-range EVs ever offered in China.
If global auto sales rebound, the shift to electric vehicles could be faster than anybody predicted.
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