A total of 335,000 applications for the 2026 auto trade-in subsidy program have been filed across China as of Feb 5, 2026, driving new car sales of over 53.7 billion yuan (about 7.7 billion U.S. dollars), according to the Ministry of Commerce.

In January, the average price of new cars participating in the trade-in program exceeded 160,000 yuan, a significant increase compared to the previous year.

Meanwhile, 659,000 scrapped vehicles were recycled nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 50.2 percent.