Light-vehicle deliveries in China rose 17 percent year on year to 2.59 million units in November, as shoppers rushed to buy small vehicles before government tax incentives expire.
Crossover demand also remained strong, according to monthly sales data released Monday by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
Vehicles with engine displacements of 1.6 liters or less are eligible for a 50 percent purchase tax cut. Sales of vehicles that qualified for the incentive jumped 21 percent to 1.88 million vehicles. More than 72 percent of vehicles sold last month qualified for the tax cut.
According to the manufacturers' association's data, sales of crossovers and SUVs surged 41 percent to top 1.02 million vehicles. Sedan deliveries increased 10 percent to 1.28 million, and multipurpose vehicle sales rose 8 percent to 235,700. 
As consumers continued to migrate to bigger, more expensive vehicles, sales of low-priced microvans plunged 43 percent to 52,300. Microvans were the only product segment to suffer declining sales.
For the first 11 months, China's light-vehicle sales increased 16 percent from a year earlier to nearly 21.7 million vehicles. 
The tax cut on small vehicles, enacted in October 2015, is due to expire on Dec. 31. The manufacturers' association has lobbied to extend the incentive to prevent sales from stagnating next year, but it has so far failed to get a clear answer from the Chinese government.