China's auto sales fall for eighth straight month in Dec amid chip shortage

China's auto sales in December fell 1.6% from a year-ago period, the eight consecutive monthly drop, industry data showed on Wednesday, as the world's biggest car market was hit hard by COVID-19 outbreaks and the global shortage of semiconductors.

Overall sales in China stood at 2.79 million vehicles in December, bringing total sales for 2021 to 26.28 million, rising 3.8% from 2020 data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) showed.

A global shortage of chips, used in everything from brake sensors to power steering to entertainment systems, has led automakers around the world to cut or suspend production, pushing up prices of both new and used vehicles but also impacting sales.

One bright spot was the sales of new energy vehicles (NEV), which include battery-powered electric vehicles, plug-in petrol-electric hybrids and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, showed strong momentum with a growth of 157.5% to 3.52 million units in 2021.

In December alone, 531,000 NEVs were sold, representing a rise of 114% year-on-year. China has in recent years heavily promoted NEVs as part of its efforts to curb air pollution.

CAAM said in December that it expects automobile sales to rise 5.4% to 27.5 million this year, and for NEV sales to grow 47% to five million.

(Reporting by Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)