New energy car sales surge in China

Chinese car sales totaled 12.32 million units in the first half of this year, a decrease of 12.4 percent year-on-year, according to stats released Wednesday.

During the January-June period, 10.13 million passenger cars were sold, a 14 percent decline on last year, while new energy car sales climbed 49.6 percent year-on-year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Passenger car sales hit 1.73 million units in June, down 7.8 percent year-on-year, but new energy car sales surged 80 percent compared with the same period last year.

A total of 2.06 million vehicles were sold in June, representing a 9.6 percent drop compared with June 2018.