Car sales fall in July following poor performance of passenger cars

China's auto sales fell 4 percent in July from a year earlier to 1.89 million vehicles amid weak market demand, according to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on Friday.

The industry association said total sales reached 15.95 million vehicles in the first seven months of this year, up 4.3 percent compared with the same period last year.

Last month's sales drop is due to weak performance of passenger cars. Passenger car sales dropped 5.3 percent to 1.59 million units in July, while sales of commercial vehicles rose 3.3 percent to 300,000 units.

Sales of multi-purpose vehicles dropped 21.9 percent from a year earlier to 107,000 vehicles, which dragged the overall performance of passenger car sales.

New-energy vehicles continued to be in the spotlight of the world's largest auto market. In the first seven months of this year, sales of new-energy vehicles surged 97.1 percent year on year to 496,000 vehicles.