BEIJING -- Beijing Electric Vehicle Co. (BJEV), the electric car-making arm of Beijing Automotive Group Co., or BAIC, sold more than 12,500 vehicles in July, up 78 percent year on year.

From January to July, BJEV sold a total of 77,600 vehicles, an increase of 28.1 percent from a year ago, the company announced Wednesday.

The strong sales were partly due to a partnership between BJEV and Chinese car-hailing company Didi Chuxing, with the latter purchasing 10,000 new energy vehicles (NEVs) in the first half of this year. BJEV is expected to further produce about 50,000 vehicles for online car-hailing companies this year, it said.

Sales of NEVs in China continued to rise in recent years. In 2018, NEV sales soared by 61.74 percent from the previous year to 1.26 million, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed.

Established in 1958 and headquartered in Beijing, BAIC sold more than 2.4 million vehicles in 2018.