Almost 600,000 Chinese-branded cars were sold last month, according to CAAM

Domestic automakers secured a market share of 35.1 percent in China's passenger vehicle segment in July, an increase of 1.7 percentage points from June, prompting cautious optimism from industry insiders.

In July, 585,000 Chinese-branded passenger cars were sold, a year-on-year growth of 4.5 percent, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on Tuesday.

Over the first seven months of the year, Chinese brands sold 3.43 million vehicles, down 25 percent from the same period in 2019.

"Recovery of sales of China-branded passenger vehicles signals purchasing power is being released after pent-up demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic," said Xu Haidong, vice-chief engineer with the CAAM.

"However, explosive growth is not expected, which is instead determined by overall product competitiveness."

Xu added there is a serious polarization among Chinese automakers in terms of market share. The front-row players, including Geely, Great Wall Motors and Changan Automobile, have a much larger market share than many of their peers.

Statistics show Geely sold 105,218 vehicles in July, up 15 percent year-on-year.

Great Wall Motors sold 78,339 vehicles last month, of which 23,723 were its H6 model, the automaker's best-selling model.

Meanwhile, Changan sold 123,548 of its Chinese-branded vehicles in July, up 49.9 percent.

The three automakers rank among the top 15 Chinese automakers in terms of sales between January to July, according to statistics from the CAAM.

With total sales of 753,000 vehicles in the first seven months of this year, Changan ranked second in the top 15 list, following SAIC Motor with a sales volume totaling 1.08 million.

Geely, with a sales volume of 636,000 between January and July, took third place. Great Wall Motors ranked fifth, with sales of 404,000 vehicles during the period.