China car sales downturn extends into May

Volkswagen AG

08/06/2026 09:04

BEIJING, June 8 (Reuters) - China's car sales extended a downturn in May that has become a stress test for foreign automakers led by Volkswagen VOWG.DE, which is trying to revive its China business through locally developed electric vehicles.     
    Sales dropped 22.3% from a year earlier to 1.53 million vehicles last month, marking an eighth consecutive month of decline, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed on Monday.
For the first five months, sales were down 19.7% to 7.18 million vehicles.

 (Reporting by Ju-min Park and Qiaoyi Li, Editing by Louise Heavens)
 ((qiaoyi.li@thomsonreuters.com;))