China’s passenger-car sales fell for a 10th consecutive month in July, underscoring persistent weakness in the domestic market even as exports continued to expand rapidly. Domestic sales dropped 21.1% from a year earlier to 1.47 million vehicles, while exports rose 88.2% to 923,000, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the CPCA, said the downturn was more severe than expected and pointed to elevated fuel prices hurting gasoline-car demand as well as weak demand for entry-level sedans. Electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid exports climbed 147.8% year on year, compared with a 3.9% decline in domestic sales of those vehicles. For the first seven months of the year, domestic passenger-vehicle sales fell 20.5%, or about 2.65 million fewer vehicles than a year earlier. Automakers have increasingly turned to overseas markets including Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, while competition at home remains intense and consumers favor affordability over premium models. Analysts say replacement demand has cooled after earlier subsidy-driven buying, and margin pressure may persist in the second half as promotional activity increases and input costs for lithium batteries and semiconductor memory rise.