On June 25, China's central and local governments began another round of subsidy cuts to the electric vehicle industry. Chinese EV maker BYD, which reported a 30% decline in sales and an 89% plunge in net profit in its third quarter, attributed the poor performance to the decrease in governmental funding.
About 151,000 new electric vehicles were purchased in China in June, the high for 2019. Since then, the number of vehicles sold has declined for four consecutive months, falling to a low of 75,000 units in October, a 45.6% drop from October 2018.
In 2009, when annual sales of new energy vehicles (including pure electric cars, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles) was less than 10,000 units, the central and local governments in China began an NEV subsidy program to give a boost to the market. The program involved generous support for Chinese EV makers. In 2013, at the program's peak, whenever manufacturer
