Shanghai (ZXZC)- China’s new energy passenger vehicle sales skyrocketed 480 percent year on year to 31,638 units, according to the China Passenger Car Association. But the segment’s January sales fell slightly when compared with the sales of the previous month.

Last month, the sales of battery electric vehicles took up 61 percent of the total sales of new energy passenger vehicles. In January, the battery electric passenger vehicle sales were 19,392 units while the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle sales totaled 12,246 units.

A00-class segment remained the sales driver of new energy passenger vehicle market, with a sales volume of 17,500 units. With a year-on-year growth of 592 percent, the A00-class segment sales accounted for 86 percent of the total new energy passenger vehicle sales.

As to the wholesales of new energy vehicle producers, BAIC BJEV ranked first last month. The wholesales of BAIC BJEV soared 389 percent from a year earlier to 7,930 units. BYD follows. Even though BYD’s January wholesales were 779 units less than that of BAIC BJEV, its year-on-year growth was up to 1,082 percent, much higher than that of BAIC BJEV.

The sales of the BAIC EC series reached 7,870 units in January, much higher than that of other automakers. 3,356 units of the JAC IEV6S/E were delivered last month while BYD Qin, with a wholesale volume of 3,339 units, was the best seller among all plug-in hybrid electric vehicle models.