China's light-vehicle deliveries increased 5.1 percent year on year to 3.61 million in the first two months on strong demand for SUVs and crossovers, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
In January and February, sales of SUVs and crossovers surged nearly 55 percent from a year earlier to about 1.27 million vehicles. Sales of multipurpose vehicles rose 14 percent to 435,800.
But sedan sales dropped nearly 13 percent to 1.78 million, while microvan deliveries plunged 36 percent to 128,700.
This year, the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday was in early February. That helped to boost vehicle demand in January, but hurt sales in February.
As a result, light-vehicle sales in February shrank 1.5 percent year on year to 1.38 million vehicles.
