(Yicai) March 4 -- BYD, Li Auto and other Chinese new energy vehicle manufacturers all logged big drops in sales last month from the previous month due to the impact of the eight-day Chinese New Year holiday and as carmakers slash prices again.

BYD posted a 39 percent slump in EV sales in February from the previous month and a 36.9 percent dive from a year earlier to 121,170 units, according to the Shenzhen-based company’s latest data. Li Auto’s deliveries sank 35 percent month on month to 20,300 autos, but jumped 21.8 percent year on year.

GAC Aion’s February shipments plunged 33.2 percent from the month before and plummeted 44.6 percent from a year earlier to 16,676 vehicles. Nio’s sales slid 19.1 percent month on month and sank 33.1 percent year on year to 8,132 units.

It is normal for car sales to tumble during the month in which Spring Festival falls, analysts said. This year the Lunar New Year fell in February, whereas last year it was in January. During these months, automakers only operate for half a month and monthly declines in sales volumes are normal.

In order to spur sales, many automakers including BYD, Tesla, Geely and SAIC-Volkswagen started to reduce their prices again immediately after the holiday.

Although the price war hurts carmakers’ profitability, they will hopefully make savings from the tumbling price of lithium carbonate, a key material used to make EV batteries, and through economies of scale, according to a report recently released by China Galaxy Securities.

Shipments tumbled across the board last month. Hozon Auto’s sales slumped 39.3 percent month on month and 39.6 percent year on year to 6,085 units while Xpeng Motors logged a 44.9 percent drop in deliveries from a month earlier and a 24.4 percent dive from a year ago to 4,545 autos.

But some did post big jumps in year on year sales. Leapmotor’s February sales plunged 46.5 percent from January but almost tripled year on year to 6,566 units.

While Aito, a marque co-developed by Huawei Technologies and Seres Group, sold 21,100 units in February, a drop of 35.9 percent from January but a six-fold leap from a year ago, securing the biggest yearly growth among peers.

Sales of passenger vehicles will sink 43.5 percent in February from the previous month and that of NEVs will dive 43 percent, the China Passenger Car Association predicted earlier. The NEV penetration rate will be about 33 percent, it added.

Editor: Kim Taylor