Passenger car sales rise 4.2% in first 11 months
2025-01-11 18:01:50
By Tan Maolin. Yang Chunyan, Ma Lin, Tan Yangchenlei also contributed to this article.
Yichang recorded 55,318 passenger car sales in the first 11 months of 2024, marking a year-over-year increase of 4.2 percent, outgrowing the average for Hubei Province. Car companies’ promotional policies effectively boosted sales since July.
Yichang recorded 55,318 passenger car sales in the first 11 months of 2024, marking a year-over-year increase of 4.2 percent, outgrowing the average for Hubei Province. Car companies’ promotional policies effectively boosted sales since July.

According to local automotive industry officials, passenger car sales across all of Hubei Province increased by 1.68 percent year-over-year from January to November 2024.
The first Tesla store in Yichang opened on January 12, 2024, making it the first Tesla dealership in a prefecture-level city in Hubei Province. This significantly altered the competition in Yichang's automotive market. The store attracted consumers from the Yichang-Jingzhou-Jingmen circle interested in test drives and reached sales of 355 vehicles in November.
In addition to Tesla, Yichang welcomed brands such as NIO, Li Auto, and Zeekr to establish their first stores in the city last year. The official numbers indicated a mixed trend in passenger car sales: while traditional fuel vehicles are losing popularity, the market share of new energy vehicles (NEVs) is expanding. From in the first 11 months, NEV sales reached 23,637 units, accounting for 42.7 percent of total sales. BYD sold 8,788 units, representing 37 percent of NEV sales in the region.
Cai Kui, sales manager at the BYD Huashenglidi store, said the store sold over 1,800 vehicles last year, reflecting a 20 percent increase compared to the previous year. The most popular models are priced between 100,000 (US$13,638) and 200,000 yuan.
Intelligent technology emerged as a key theme in last year's automotive market. At the Harmony lntelligent Mobility Alliance store in Wuyue Plaza, NEVs equipped with automatic parking and driving features drew considerable interest from consumers. Store manager Huang Rui said that smart technology is a significant selling point for NEVs equipped with Huawei's intelligent automotive solutions, enabling users to control functions like seat heating and vehicle diagnostics remotely via their smartphones.