BEIJING, May 28 -- Sales of Chinese-brand passenger vehicles in April surged 81.4 percent year on year, industry data showed.

Last month, a total of 999,000 Chinese-brand passenger vehicles were sold, accounting for 55.2 percent of the country's total passenger-car sales during the period, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

In the first four months, sales of domestic auto brands rose 18.8 percent year on year to over 3.68 million units, the data showed.

The sales made up 53 percent of the country's total passenger-car sales in the period, up 5.4 percentage points from the same period last year.