{"id":464384,"date":"2026-02-12T15:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T15:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/464384\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T15:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T15:05:08","slug":"china-moves-to-curb-auto-price-wars-after-sales-sink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/464384\/","title":{"rendered":"China moves to curb auto price wars after sales sink"},"content":{"rendered":"

HONG KONG (AP) \u2014 China<\/a> moved on Thursday to curb a fierce price war among automakers that has caused massive losses for the industry, after passenger car sales dropped<\/a> nearly 20% in January from the year before, the fastest pace in almost two years.<\/p>\n

The State Administration for Market Regulation released guidelines for manufacturers, dealers and parts suppliers aimed at preventing a race-to-the-bottom price war.<\/p>\n

They ban automakers from setting prices below the cost of production to \u201csqueeze out competitors or monopolize the market.\u201d Violators may face \u201csignificant legal risks,\u201d the regulator warned. <\/p>\n

The rules also target deceptive pricing strategies and price fixing between parts suppliers and auto manufacturers.<\/p>\n

Passenger car sales in China fell 19.5% in January from a year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. That was the biggest percentage drop since February 2024.<\/p>\n

The 1.4 million passenger cars sold in January compared with 2.2 million units sold in December, CAAM said. <\/p>\n

Weakening demand reflects a reluctance of cash-strapped buyers to splash out on big purchases<\/a>. Sales also have suffered from a cut in tax exemptions for EV purchases, coupled with uncertainties over whether trade-in subsidies for EV purchases will continue after some regions phased them out<\/a>, auto analysts said.<\/p>\n

The aggressive price war<\/a> in China\u2019s auto sector has caused an estimated loss of 471 billion yuan ($68 billion) in output value across the whole industry in the past three years, Li Yanwei, a member of the China Automobile Dealers Association, wrote recently.<\/p>\n

Analysts expect domestic demand to dip this year. S&P has forecast sales of light vehicles, including passenger cars, in China will fall up to 3% in 2026. <\/p>\n

However, Chinese automakers are gaining ground in global markets. China\u2019s exports of passenger cars jumped 49% year-on-year to 589,000 in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t foresee a loss in momentum for the Chinese auto industry this year,\u201d said Claire Yuan, director of corporate ratings for China autos at S&P Global Ratings.<\/p>\n

Chinese automakers such as BYD \u2014 the country\u2019s largest and one that overtook Tesla as the world\u2019s top electric vehicle maker<\/a> \u2014 are targeting markets in Europe and Latin America as they confront intense competition in both prices and lineups at home due to oversupply.<\/p>\n

Analysts at Citi expect China\u2019s car exports could jump 19% this year driven by exports of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.<\/p>\n

BYD is targetings around 1.3 million of overseas car sales in 2026, up from the 1.05 million last year. Other major Chinese automakers have also set ambitious sales targets with a focus on exports.<\/p>\n

Last month, Canada agreed to cut its hefty 100% tariff<\/a> on China-made EV imports in a move welcomed by Chinese carmakers. China also recently reached a deal<\/a> with the European Union that could allow more of its EVs to enter the European market.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the European Commission accepted a request by the German auto group Volkswagen to exempt import tariffs for one of its China-built EV models under the CUPRA brand \u2014 as long as those vehicles are sold at or above an agreed minimum import price \u2014 in a first of such exemptions.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s commerce ministry said Thursday that it welcomed the move and that it hopes to see more such exemptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONG KONG (AP) \u2014 China moved on Thursday to curb a fierce price war among automakers that has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1927,106,28,1302,144,14737,173583,101,35988,793,851,3139,20999,200479,8879,1019,965],"class_list":["post-464384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-ap-top-news","tag-auto-industry","tag-business","tag-cars","tag-china","tag-citigroup","tag-claire-yuan","tag-economy","tag-financial-performance","tag-general-news","tag-inc","tag-international-trade","tag-retail-and-wholesale","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-tariffs-and-global-trade","tag-tesla","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}