(Yicai Global) Oct. 12 -- China's new energy vehicle sales soared to an all-time high last month amid gas-powered carmakers' struggles to secure enough semiconductors.

NEV sales more than doubled to 357,000 units in September from a year ago, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers revealed today.

Another data provider released nearly similar numbers. Some 334,000 NEVs were sold last month, more than tripling from September 2020, the China Passenger Car Association said today.

But the broader sector is going through a lull. Car buyers purchased 2.1 million vehicles last month, down 19.6 percent from a year earlier, because of the gradually easing chip shortage and the high comparison point of last year, according to the CAAM.

The problem is weighing on production. During the ongoing month, an insufficient semiconductor supply may still limit carmakers' output, the CPCA predicted.

The September numbers may be slightly different but prove a trend. Retail sales of passenger vehicles in China fell 17.3 percent to nearly 1.6 million units last month from a year ago, according to the CPCA. The figure is down 27.8 percent from a peak logged in September 2017.

This year, the auto market has been recovering after a multi-year slump. From January to September, China sold about 18.6 million units of all types of vehicles, up 8.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the CAAM.

Electric vehicles have been shining brighter than others. During the nine months, NEV sales jumped more than 200 percent to 1.8 million units, according to the CPCA.

Leading Chinese carmakers have resilient industrial chains to cope with the chip shortage, driving the NEV sales bump, said the CPCA.

Three automakers have made up almost half of all NEV sales this year. BYD was No. 1, selling more than 69,800 units, followed by Tesla with its nearly 52,200 units. SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile was No. 3 with almost 37,200 vehicles.

The electrification trend shows in battery production. China made 23.2 gigawatt-hours of batteries last month, nearly tripling from a year ago. From January to September, the number grew almost three times to 134.7 GWh, according to the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi