NANJING - The new energy vehicle (NEV) output of East China's Jiangsu province hit a record high in the first seven months of 2022, surpassing the total NEV output of the economic powerhouse last year, local authorities said.

Jiangsu saw its vehicle production increase 26.1 percent year-on-year to 797,000 from January to July, which included an output of 289,000 NEVs, a 1.8-fold increase year-on-year compared with the same period last year, according to the provincial department of industry and information technology.

Since the beginning of this year, governments at all levels and auto industry enterprises in Jiangsu have taken the initiative to ensure production while combating the epidemic, helping the NEV industry to grow rapidly, said the department.

The province's 163 key enterprises in the power and energy-storage battery industries reported a total output value of 120 billion yuan ($17.4 billion) in the first half of 2022, a year-on-year surge of 84.6 percent, accounting for 38.8 percent of China's total.

China's NEV industry has grown steadily this year. In the first half of 2022, the NEV output and sales in the world's largest car market reached 2.66 million and 2.6 million units, respectively.

By the end of June, the country had a total of 10.01 million NEVs on its roads, data from the Ministry of Public Security showed.