A total of 1,218,722 cars, sport-utility vehicles, multi-purpose vehicles and minivans were sold in January, an increase of 84.2 percent year on year and 5.1 percent from December, Saturday's China Daily quoted Rao Da, the association's secretary-general, as saying.

The sales boost was largely driven by the minivan segment, which jumped 88.9 percent year on year and 44.4 percent from the previous month. This was mainly a result of subsidies for trade-ins and tax cuts introduced as part of the government's stimulus program.

China's Ministry of Commerce said last week that the vehicle sales this year are forecast to surge a little more than 10 percent from 2009 to more than 15 million.