(Yicai) May 13 -- China's vehicle production and sales exceeded 10 million units each in the first four months of the year, achieving such milestone for the first time ever, mainly thanks to policy incentives and technological upgrades.

Car production expanded 13 percent to 10.175 million, while sales climbed 11 percent to 10.06 million in the four months ended April 30 from a year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

New energy vehicle production and sales surged 48 percent and 46 percent to 4.429 million and 4.3 million, respectively.

Among the sales, 8.123 million were domestic, and 1.937 million were exports between January and April, up 12 percent and 6 percent, respectively, from a year earlier. Notably, NEV exports soared 53 percent to about 642,000 units.

Chinese brands sold 5.94 million passenger vehicles in the first four months, seizing a market share of 68.7 percent, an increase of 8.1 percentage points from the same period last year.

In April alone, China's auto production and sales reached 2.619 million and 2.59 million, respectively, up 8.9 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively, from a year earlier. The market share of Chinese passenger cars exceeded 70 percent.

In the first four months of the year, only 65 car models saw their price decline, 56 fewer than in the same period last year, said Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association. The Chinese automotive market grew significantly this year thanks to policy support, which led to moderate competition, he added.

However, as automakers will have larger profit margins because of declining lithium carbonate prices and an ample battery supply, they are expected to aggressively launch new models in the second half of the year, likely resulting in more car prices falling, Cui noted.

"I believe that price competition will be quite intense in the second half of the year," Cui predicted.

Editor: Futura Costaglione