An NEV manufacturing line in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality Photo: VCG

July is usually a low point for car sales in China, but this year, many Chinese new-energy vehicle (NEV) makers defied expectations with record-high deliveries, especially by emerging players. Demand is likely to grow further during the coming months amid a wave of government policies, experts said.

Chinese NEV makers' sales to dealers totaled 750,000 in July, up 34 percent year-on-year, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) revealed on Thursday. 

BYD sold 261,105 NEVs in the month, ranking first, followed by Tesla's 64,285, GAC Group's new-energy brand Aion's 45,025 and Geely's 41,014, the CPCA data showed.

Besides the traditional giants, emerging players continued to show strong momentum, with Li Auto leading the pack by delivering a record-high 34,134 vehicles to consumers in July, up 227.5 percent on a yearly basis, the maker disclosed on Tuesday.

NIO ranked second, delivering 20,462 vehicles in the month, up 103.6 percent. NIO's monthly deliveries exceeded 20,000 for the first time, according to data released by the company.

XPENG Motors delivered 11,000 cars, continuing its growth for a sixth consecutive month.

Consumers remained enthusiastic about buying NEVs in July, driven by government policies aiming to bolster automobile consumption, as well as carmakers' and dealers' promotional activities, the CPCA said in a statement.

"July has been traditionally an off-season for car sales, but with local stimulus policies remaining strong and producers continuing promotional activities, consumers' wait-and-see mood weakened," Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the CPCA, told the Global Times on Thursday.

The boom in July was even better than expected, reflecting the strong resilience of consumption and the effectiveness of producers' marketing campaigns, Cui said.

The central and local governments are making every effort to promote consumption, with many support policies already taking effect. The potential of the automobile sector is large, and the market's growth momentum is likely to persist in the second half of the year, Cui said.

On Monday, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, rolled out measures to boost consumption, including NEV purchases.

Efforts should be made to build high-quality charging infrastructure, promote the use of NEVs in rural areas, and maintain and improve tax breaks for NEV purchases, the NDRC said.

The Ministry of Public Security on Thursday introduced 26 measures to support the country's high-quality economic development, including boosting vehicle consumption.

It pledged to facilitate rural residents' applications for vehicle license plates and other traffic-related permits and licenses, enhance the utilization of road resources, and ease the passage of logistics vehicles.

With the advancement of rural revitalization and regional coordinated development, the number of rural motor vehicles and drivers has grown rapidly, exceeding millions of units annually. The proportion of rural motor vehicle drivers nationwide has reached more than 50 percent, said Wang Qiang, vice director of the Traffic Management Bureau under the ministry.

This year's NEV sales are expected to total 8.5 million, about 1.6 million units more than last year, the CPCA said.