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China June car sales +18.6% y/y vs +13.9% y/y in May

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EV, PHEV sales quicken, but worrying signals emerge

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Exports pick up

(Rewrites through with details and context)

BEIJING, July 8 (Reuters) - China's car sales rose in

June for the fifth straight month, but reports by some major

electric vehicle makers of easing demand raised concerns about

intensifying competition in the world's largest auto market.

Sales grew 18.6% in June year-on-year to 2.1 million

vehicles from a 13.9% rise in May. First-half sales were up

11.2% to 11.1 million vehicles, data from the China Passenger

Car Association showed on Tuesday.

EV and plug-in hybrids sales, making up 52.7% of total car

sales, increased 29.7% in June from a year earlier, up from

28.2% in May.

But local EV giant BYD saw car sales growth slow

to 11% from 14.1% in May. Li Auto ( LI ), which along with

BYD are the only two listed Chinese EV makers with full-year

profitability, logged a 24.1% sales decline last month,

reversing a 16.7% rise in May.

Geely Auto raised its 2025 sales target by 11% to

3 million units, but its sales growth eased to 42% from 46% in

May.

Warning the industry of excessive competition, Chinese

regulators have called on automakers to halt an escalating price

war, which is heightening worries about overcapacity amid weak

domestic demand and U.S. tariffs.

Concerns about oversupply persist, as scepticism over car

sales grows with reports of new vehicles being shipped overseas

as "used" since 2019, according to a Reuters report in late

June.

Setting itself apart from industry-wide oversupply woes,

Xiaomi ( XIACF ), an emerging competitor to Tesla,

received exceptionally strong orders for its second EV, the YU7

sports utility vehicle, which went on sale last month.

Tesla's China sales swung to a 3.7% increase last month from

a 30% fall in May, in the wake of its fastest-ever model ramp-up

with just six weeks to full production of the refreshed Model Y

in its Shanghai plant.

Car exports rose 23.8% in June from the year before, against

a 13.5% increase in May, CPCA data showed.