BEIJING -- The production of passenger cars in China last month showed a sharp increase over February 2020, when factory operations were impacted by the COVID-19 epidemic, an industry association said.

The production of passenger vehicles, including sedans, sport-utility vehicles and multipurpose vehicles surged 472.8 percent year-on-year to 1.13 million units in February, data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) shows.

The output rose by a modest 2.3 percent when compared with February of 2019, the CPCA said.

In the first two months of this year, the production of passenger vehicles dropped 2.6 percent over the same period of 2019 to about 3 million units, it said.

The production of luxury cars in February rose 57 percent over the same month in 2019, it added.