(Yicai) June 3 -- Chinese new energy vehicle manufacturers saw their sales volumes rise last month, mainly thanks to a policy encouraging the trade-in of old consumer goods.

BYD's NEV sales soared 38 percent to 331,800 units in May from a year earlier, while that of Li Auto rose 24 percent to 35,000 units. Seres Group, the car-making partner of Huawei Technologies, reported a near four-time surge in sales to 34,100 units.

The trade-in of vehicles complies with the trend of auto consumption upgrades, boosting the sales of medium-to-high-end brands with a unit price above CNY200,000 (USD27,600), according to a research report by Ping An Securities.

The trade-in subsidies on the auto market will likely bring an additional 1 million units of private new car consumption to achieve sound market growth in May, according to a previous forecast by Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association.

Shanghai-based Nio reported record-high sales of about 20,500 units. Zeekr Intelligent Technology, the electric vehicle subsidiary of Chinese auto giant Geely Holding Group that went public in the US last month, sold about 18,600 units in May, up 115 percent from a year ago.

Xpeng Motors, which entered the Australian and French markets with its G9 and G6 models last month, saw sales jump 35 percent to 10,100 units. Xiaomi Automobile, the electric vehicle unit of the Chinese smartphone giant, sold 8,630 units.

Xiaomi will continue to improve production to deliver more than 10,000 units this month and between 100,000 and 120,000 units this year, founder Lei Jun said.

Changan Automobile's NEV sales surged more than 90 percent to 55,800 units last month from a year earlier, with that of its smart EV brand Avatr Technology soaring 163 percent to 4,569 units. SAIC Motor sales rose 6.7 percent to 81,000 NEVs, while that of GAC Aion, the EV marque of GAC Group, fell 11 percent to 40,073 units.

Chinese NEV makers' wholesale sales reached 620,000 units from May 1 to May 26, a 25 percent gain from a year earlier.

Editor: Martin Kadiev