BYD showcases the Seal sedan at the 2023 Shanghai auto show in April. (CAO YINGYING / CHINA DAILY)

BEIJING - Sales of Chinese-brand passenger vehicles in April surged 81.4 percent year-on-year, industry data showed.

Last month, a total of 999,000 Chinese-brand passenger vehicles were sold, accounting for 55.2 percent of the country's total passenger-car sales during the period, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

In the first four months, sales of domestic auto brands rose 18.8 percent year-on-year to over 3.68 million units, the data showed.

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The sales made up 53 percent of the country's total passenger-car sales in the period, up 5.4 percentage points from the same period last year.