People view new energy vehicles on display at the fourth World Manufacturing Convention in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, Nov. 19, 2021. The fourth World Manufacturing Convention kicked off Friday in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province. The four-day event, themed "innovation-driven, digitally empowered: global manufacturing industry aligned for high-quality growth," aims to promote high-quality manufacturing and deepen exchanges between China and the rest of the world. (Xinhua/Huang Bohan)

China's retail sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) from January to December in 2021 reached 2.989 million units, an increase of 169.1 percent year-on-year, according to an article released by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) on its WeChat account on Tuesday.

In December, NEV passenger vehicle retail sales reached 475,000 units, up 128.8 percent year-on-year, and wholesale sales totaled 505,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 138.9 percent. Among them, Chinese domestic auto maker BYD and Tesla China led the way, with wholesale sales of 93,338 and 70,847 units respectively.

In 2021, the retail sales of passenger vehicles reached 20.146 million units, an increase of 4.4 percent year-on-year, with NEVs contributing 9 percentage points to the year-on-year growth of passenger cars.

However, data from the CPCA showed that in 2021, the retail sales of traditional fuel vehicles reached 17.16 million units, down 6 percent year-on-year.

Analysts said that the strongly differentiated features between NEVs and traditional fuel vehicles showed the change in consumer demand.

The CPCA said that with the large increase in the scale of the new energy industry chain, together with the subsidies for purchasing NEVs, sales are expected to see another strong increase in 2022.

As the government ramped up efforts to support the NEV sector, the original expectation of 4.8 million new energy passenger car sales in 2022 should be adjusted to over 5.5 million units, the CPCA noted, adding that the dramatic rise of domestic consumer recognition of the new energy market and the stability of policy subsidies will contribute to rising NEV sales in 2022, allowing the country to maintain its leadership position with more than 50 percent of the NEV market.