Shanghai (ZXZC)- Vehicle sales in China, the world's biggest auto market, evidently grew 7.5% over the previous month in June to 2.056 million units, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said on July 10. However, compared to the performance for the year-ago period, the country still posted a drop of 9.6%, marking the 12th consecutive month of decline.

Monthly PV sales in June climbed 10.7% over the previous month as car dealers offered discounts to clear inventory before new emissions rules kicked in and 3-month grace period before the official implementation of new NEV subsidy policy ended June 25, said the association.

For the first half of the year, China's vehicles sales totaled 12.323 million units, still falling 12.4% from the same month a year prior.

Year-to-date PV sales slid 14% from a year earlier, 1.17 percentage point smaller than the negative growth in Jan.-May sales. Besides, the CV cumulative sales showed a year-on-year drop of 4.1%, compared with 1.3% decline in sales for the first five months.

Compared with the previous month, both car and SUV sectors boasted double-digit sales increase in June, while monthly MPV sales shrank 9.5%.

Regarding year-on-year change, only the SUV sector posted a slight growth of 0.3%. Sales of cars, MPVs and minibuses all represented decrease of over 10%.

Moreover, the CAAM said sales of new energy vehicles in China amounted to around 152,000 units, surging 45.6% month on month and zooming up 80% year on year due to the almost-finished transition period prior to new NEV subsidy policy which stimulated the sales since consumers forecasted higher prices on NEVs in the future.

For the first six months of the year, NEV sales in the country also soared 49.6% over the year-ago period to 617,000 units, a bit faster than the growth for Jan.-May sales.