Vehicle sales in China are expected to hit 27 million in 2021, up 6.7 percent year-on-year, said the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on Friday.

The association revised up its estimate when it released June sales figures. The CAAM's earlier estimate for the whole year was a 4 percent growth, which would see sales grow to 26.3 million in 2021.

Vehicle sales last month fell 12.4 percent year-on-year to 2.02 million because of the lingering chip shortages. But sales in the first half totaled 12.89 million, up 25.6 percent from the same period last year.

NEV sales soared even higher in the first half of the year. Deliveries of electric cars and plug-in hybrids totaled 1 million units in the country, up over 200 percent year-on-year.

Xu Haidong, vice-chief engineer of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said NEV sales in the first half beat the association's expectations.

"Their sales this year would hit 2.4 million, up from our previous estimate of 1.8 million," he said.

China's vehicle manufacturer BYD saw its NEV sales surge over 192 percent year-on-year to 41,366 units in June. In the first half of 2021, it sold 154,579 units, up 154.76 percent year-on-year.

Chinese electric car startup Nio delivered a record number of 8,083 vehicles last month, representing a 116.1 percent year-over-year growth.

The startup delivered 21,896 vehicles in the second quarter this year, up 111.9 percent from the same period last year.