Shanghai (ZXZC)- Geely Automobile Holdings Limited (Geely Auto) sold 1,500,838 vehicles throughout 2018 with a year-on-year growth of 20.3%, making it the champion among Chinese PV makers by 2018 sales and its full-time sales exceed 1.5 million units for the first time in history, according to the sales report released by the automaker on January 7.

Although Geely Auto failed to accomplish its original 1.58 million-unit sales goal for 2018, it is still a pretty well performance amid the overall sales downturn in China this year.

Geely Auto saw its SUV sales total 857,922 units, accounting for 57% of the company’s annual new car sales and for the first time taking the championship in terms of 2018 SUV sales in China.

As to sedan models, the full-year sales of the Emgrand and all-new Vision presented slight YoY drop of 6.6% and 0.8% respectively. However, the sales of the Emgrand GL jumped 19.7% over the year-ago period. The Binrui sedan had monthly sales exceeding 10,000 units in November and December.

The premium car brand Lynk & Co gained an annual sales volume of 120,414 units. Its sales in December calculated by ZXZC were 5,785 units.

To fortify the presence in NEV domain, Geely Auto has rolled out such NEV models as the Emgrand EV450, the Borui GE, the Emgrand GSe and the Lynk & Co 01 PHEV successively in 2018. The company said its sales of NEV and electrified models aggregated 68,549 units last year.