With both production and sales continuing to jump, the market of new energy vehicles (NEV) in China remained vigorous last month, a bright spot amid a lackluster automobile sector.

About 52,900 NEV cars were sold in February, up 53.6 percent year-on-year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Monday. The production also saw rapid expansion, with an over 50-percent increase.

Meanwhile, the broader automobile sector maintained the downward trend as the total sales went down 13.8 percent from a year ago and down 37.4 percent from January. The production also declined.