GAC Group sees sales spike in March

GAC Group, a leading automobile manufacturer in Guangdong province, saw a dramatic increase in sales in March amid the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the company on Friday.

The company sold 110,500 cars in March, an increase more than four times over the previous month, according to the company's source on Friday.

The increase was mainly driven by the company's development in new energy and self-innovated cars, with sales of its new energy cars increasing 130 percent year-on-year in March and its self-innovated brand GAC MOTOR growing 330.87 percent in the last month, compared to February.

"As the situation in China tends to be stable and the automobile industry has resumed production, there will be an increased market demand in the months ahead," said Peng Peng, deputy director of Guangdong Society of Reform.

The COVID-19 outbreak has put downward pressure on the automobile sector in a short period of time, but the situation is "temporary" and would not affect the upward trend in the long view of the industry, according to Peng.

In February, Chinese carmakers delivered 310,000 vehicles, down almost 80 percent year-on-year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. During the first two months of this year, vehicle sales totaled 2.24 million units in China, down 42 percent year-on-year.