BEIJING — China's new energy vehicle (NEV) sales and output posted continuous year-on-year growth in the January-October period amid broader downward pressure, industry data showed.

The country saw a total of 947,000 NEV cars sold in the first 10 months of 2019, up 10.1 percent year-on-year, while production rose 11.7 percent to 983,000 units, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed on Nov 11.

The broader automobile sector saw a mild uptick as the total car output and sales for the first 10 months declined by 10.4 percent and 9.7 percent year-on-year from the previous year, narrowing 1 percentage point and 0.6 percentage points from the January-September period, respectively.

Despite the narrowing drop in the H2 total auto output and sales, sluggish demand in the domestic market, technical upgrade pressure imposed by the "China VI" vehicle emission standards and subsidy withdrawal from the NEVs sector left the market with little room to rebound, the association said.

However, the drop in car sales will continue to narrow in the next two months as China's economy maintained overall stability in the first three quarters with an improved economic structure and a sequence of supportive policies introduced to stabilize the economy, it added.

A breakdown of the data also showed that consumer demand in the passenger car market remained weak while the commercial vehicle sector stayed robust this month driven by the accelerating update of models in compliance with the new emission standards and increased investments.