(Yicai) Nov. 11 -- China’s passenger vehicle sales declined for the 13th consecutive month in October, even as the adoption rate of new energy vehicles reached a new high and exports surged.

Retail car sales plunged over 27 percent to 1.65 million units last month from a year earlier, according to data released by the China Passenger Car Association on Nov. 9. Sales of gasoline vehicles fell 45 percent, and NEV sales fell 14 percent to 1.11 million units, accounting for a record 67.5 percent of the total.

The CPCA attributed the decline mainly to increasing industry costs and a strong consumer wait-and-see attitude.

Auto exports, including of complete units and complete knock-down kits, surged 69 percent to 928,000 from a year ago, accounting for 35 percent of sales, up from 19 percent in the period, CPCA data also showed. Electric cars made up 63 percent of all car exports.

BYD shipped out 165,194, Chery Automobile 83,843, Geely Automobile Holdings 80,119, and Tesla China 59,012.

In the first 10 months of the year, retail car sales slumped 23 percent to 15.11 million, according to the data. NEV sales dropped 13 percent to 8.87 million, and exports surged 74 percent to eight million.

The market could enter a recovery window this month because November has two more effective production and sales days than October, and colder weather and vehicle demand among migrant workers returning to their hometowns may create opportunities for electric and low- to mid-end gasoline vehicles, the CPCA predicted.

Exports have exceeded 10 million cars this year, but growth will likely slow to around 10 percent next year, according to Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the CPCA.

“Automakers should prepare in advance by speeding up local manufacturing, building after-sales channels, making region-specific market layouts, strengthening compliance and brand building, and taking terminal retail sales as the core performance metric to move from exporting products to exporting the industrial chain,” Cui noted.

Editor: Futura Costaglione