BEIJING - Retail sales of China's passenger vehicles surged 55.5 percent in April, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed Tuesday.

A total of 1.63 million passenger vehicles were sold last month, up 2.5 percent from March, according to the association.

It attributed the strong expansion to a range of factors including the growth of demand and the low base in the same period last year.

In the first four months of this year, retail sales of passenger vehicles stood at about 5.9 million units, down 1.3 percent from the same period in 2022.

The data also revealed that some 240,000 luxury cars were sold in April, jumping 101 percent year-on-year.