BEIJING -- China's passenger car sales climbed 4.9 percent year on year in June, ending a falling streak for 12 consecutive months, data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed Tuesday.

A total of 1.8 million passenger vehicles were sold last month, up from 1.61 million in May, according to the CPCA.

In the first half of the year, passenger car sales totaled 10.13 million units, down 9.2 percent from one year earlier.

Excluding minivans, passenger car sales surged 11.6 percent in June from May, but dropped 9.3 percent in the first six months compared with one year earlier.

The country's new energy passenger vehicles surged 65.9 percent year on year to 577,000 units during the January-June period.

CPCA said high temperatures would dampen passenger car sales in July but expected sales to gradually improve in August.

China, the world's largest auto market, saw a drop in car sales for the first time in over two decades in 2018.

To boost car sales, the government announced a series of measures, such as prohibiting local governments from imposing any limit on the consumption and use of new energy vehicles.