Staff members from a local NEV enterprise catch up on orders on the production line in Ganzhou, East China's Jiangxi Province on December 26, 2023.Photo: VCG

China's production of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) rose 30 percent year-on-year in July to 1.55 million units, with a penetration rate of 61 percent, data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed on Thursday.

Total vehicle production remained flat year-on-year, reaching 2.53 million units, the data showed. Conventional fuel vehicle production stood at 980,000 units, down 27 percent year-on-year.

With robust production and a rising penetration rate, NEVs have become one of the most visible symbols of progress in Chinese manufacturing, analysts said.

In the first seven months of 2026, NEV production reached 8.95 million, up 10 percent, with a penetration rate of 51 percent. Total vehicle production reached 17.61 million, down 3 percent year-on-year. The output of conventional-fuel vehicles stood at 8.67 million, down 14 percent year-on-year.

The robust NEV production was achieved as the Chinese economy made a good start with improved quality and efficiency in the first seven months, despite facing multiple challenges including the complex international environment, Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the CPCA, analyzed in a post on Thursday.

Profits in the equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing sectors grew rapidly, while the raw materials and manufacturing sectors posted double-digit profit growth, Cui said.

"China has now entered a harvest period as earlier heavy, long-term investment in research and development is paying off, and new quality productive forces show accelerated speed, and the nation's NEV sector is a typical example," Jin Siyu, an  industry analyst, told the Global Times on Thursday.

In the first seven months of 2026, the vehicle industry's revenue was 6.078 trillion yuan ($904 billion), up 2.7 percent year-on-year. The industry had a profit margin of 3.6 percent.

According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released on August 12, China's auto exports maintained strong growth in July, with shipments exceeding 1 million units for a second consecutive month.

In July, China exported 1.043 million vehicles, up 0.6 percent month-on-month and 81.3 percent year-on-year. For NEVs, China exported 553,000 units, up 150 percent year-on-year. NEVs accounted for more than half of China's total auto exports for a second consecutive month.

China's annual NEV sales have risen to 16.49 million units, and China accounts for more than 70 percent of the global output of NEVs, power batteries and key materials, according to an official of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.