China's car sales increased in September and exceeded 2 million ahead of holidays, data released by the China Passenger Car Association showed Wednesday.
Car sales rose nearly 5.0 percent in September from a year ago. At the same time, energy vehicle sales surged 22.1 percent from the last year to 746,000 units.
The association said energy passenger car sales logged a sharp annual increase of 33.8 percent in the first nine months of the year.
The CPCA observed that people opted to buy new cars as they avoided housing investment amid the property market downturn.
Exports of passenger car sales surged 50 percent on a yearly basis in September, data showed.
Data came after Brussels officially initiated an investigation into the China's electric vehicle sector. The EU criticized that subsidies provided by China to its electric vehicle manufacturers pose a threat to the already vulnerable EU automobile manufacturers.
China called the probe an act of protectionism and cautioned that it would dampen the supply chain.
