Sales of Chinese passenger vehicles reached 1.25 million units in February, up 4.2 percent year-on-year and down 40 percent month-on-month, statistics from the China Passenger Car Association released on Tuesday showed.

Sales from the first two months of the year totaled 3.32 million units.

Chinese brands showed positive results last month, selling 540,000 vehicles. Their market share reached 44 percent, up 4.3 percentage points year-on-year.

GAC Group's February sales increased 36.5 percent year-on-year to 143,000 units and Geely increased 2 percent to 78,000 units despite the influence of the chip shortage and Chinese Spring Festival.

In the new energy vehicle sector, sales soared 180.5 percent year-on-year reaching 272,000 units last month.

NEV sales accounted for 21.8 percent of the total vehicle sales in February, an increase of 13 percentage points compared with same period last year.

A total of five carmakers achieved wholesale totals of more than 10,000 units in February, including BYD which saw wholesale figures soar to 87,000 units, Tesla China followed with 56,000 units, and SAIC-GM-Wuling with 26,000 units.

Tesla China exported more than 33,000 NEVs last month.

The NEV startup Li auto delivered more than 8,400 units, jumping 265.8 percent year-on-year. The carmaker ranked first among its competitors.

It was followed by Hozon Auto with 7,117 units, which increased 255 percent year-on-year. Xpeng delivered 6,225 units and Nio delivered 6,131 units last month.