(Yicai) Dec. 15 -- The profits of China’s secondhand auto dealers are shrinking as they turn to live streaming to sell vehicles and as gas-powered car prices drop amid the growth of the new energy vehicle market.

“November was the worst month I’ve ever seen,” said Feng Xiaojiang, a used-car dealer in Jiangsu province who has worked in the industry for almost 10 years.

With the inexorable rise of NEVs, traditional carmakers have been offering price discounts to tackle falling sales and overcapacity, Feng noted.

“November was like a huge black hole that killed all the remaining hope I had,” another dealer in Hubei province said. At the beginning of the year, he managed to attract more than 100 customers with low prices, but business has been sluggish in the second half, he added.

The ranks of second-hand car dealers embracing live streaming to promote sales is growing, with many even settling for a profit of just CNY1,000 (USD140) per vehicle. Meanwhile, online celebrity dealers are moving lots of vehicles, shrinking the living space of traditional car dealers, the person said.

“I sold almost 20 cars last month for a net profit of only CNY2,000,” a vendor in northeastern China who has taken to live streaming told Yicai. “That’s still better than my peers, who likely didn't sell any cars last month.”

While profits are tumbling, transactions are rising. Nearly 1.7 million second-hand vehicles were sold in November, a 29 percent increase from a year earlier, with overall car sales up 15 percent at 16.8 million, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association.

The market for pre-owned cars is growing after the total number of cars on the road exceeded 300 million, said Huang Jianhua, head of the Henan arm of PCAuto. But dealers need to change tack, as a weak economy and stiffer competition is squeezing profits, Huang noted.

Editor: Futura Costaglione