BEIJING, May 11 (Reuters) - China's car sales fell again in April as export growth stayed strong, with automakers increasingly targeting overseas markets to offset intense competition at home, where a push toward higher-end models has yet to reverse a broader slowdown.
Sales dropped 21.6% from a year earlier to 1.4 million vehicles last month, marking a seventh consecutive month of declines, data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said on Monday.
Combustion engine car sales missed expectations
due to high oil prices and demand for plug-in hybrids was also sluggish, said Cui Dongshu, the CPCA's secretary-general.
Electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid sales, accounting for 60.6% of the total, slid 6.8%, extending a losing streak to four months.
In contrast, EV and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle exports shot up 111.8% from a year earlier, outpacing a 80.2% increase in overall car exports, as rising global fuel prices triggered by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran bolstered EV demand in overseas markets.
The widening gap between domestic weakness and export strength is evident at BYD,, the world's largest EV maker. Its sales downturn globally stretched to an eighth month in April despite persistent strength in overseas shipments.
Last month, Morgan Stanley maintained its expectation that China car wholesales would fall 2% this year, but raised its export growth estimate to 33% from 15%. It also expects the decline in domestic sales to deepen to 11% from an earlier projection of 6%.
(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li, Zhang Yan and Ju-min Park; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Thomas Derpinghaus)
