Sales of passenger vehicles in China rose by 7.1% to 2.27m units in January from 2.12m units a year earlier, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
The data did not include sales of commercial vehicles which are covered in a separate report released later in the month by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
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According to the CPCA data, passenger vehicle sales have picked up momentum since last year despite excise taxes on small cars returning to their normal rate of 10% at the beginning of the year from the discounted rate of 7.5% in 2017 and 5% in 2016.
Passenger vehicle sales increased by just 0.6% to 2.8m units in December and by 1.5% to 24.2m units in the whole of 2017.
The association also said around 30,000 new energy passenger vehicles were sold last month, a fourfold increase on a year earlier.
The CPCA also said it expected the overall passenger vehicle market to grow by around 4% this year to around 25.2m units.
