(Yicai) Feb. 12 -- New energy vehicles accounted for more than half of China's total passenger car exports for the first time ever in January, according to the latest official data.

China exported 295,000 new energy passenger vehicles and 294,000 fossil fuel passenger cars last month, up 110 percent and 15 percent, respectively, from a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers announced yesterday.

Exports of new energy passenger vehicles increased rapidly in recent years, but before last month, their number had never exceeded that of fossil fuel passenger vehicles, Yicai noticed. The fact that NEV exports to the passenger vehicle total exceeded 50 percent for the first time shows the continuous improvement of China's NEV competitiveness and recognition overseas.

China's NEV exports doubled to about 302,000 units in January from a year earlier, of which around 202,000 were pure electric vehicles, and about 99,000 were plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, up 100 percent and 97 percent, respectively, in the period, according to CAAM data.

Meanwhile, the country's overall vehicle exports climbed 45 percent to 681,000 units last month from the same period last year, CAAM data also showed. Of them, passenger cars were 589,000 units and commercial vehicles were 93,000 units, up 49 percent and 24 percent, respectively.

Nine of the top 10 Chinese auto exporters achieved positive export growth in January, as only Changan Automobile posted a decline. Chery Automobile ranked first with 119,000 vehicles exported, followed by BYD with 100,000 units, SAIC Motor with 97,000 units, Geely Automobile Holdings with 77,000 units, and Tesla with 51,000 units, according to data from the CAAM.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione