BEIJING, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- China's penetration rate of new energy vehicles (NEVs), a major gauge of popularity, has reached a new high of 65.1 percent of total passenger car retail sales in July, an industry survey showed Tuesday.

The figure represents a year-on-year increase of 11.6 percentage points and month-on-month growth of 2.1 percentage points, according to data released by the China Passenger Car Association.

In July, the NEVs retail penetration rate among domestic brands reached 83.8 percent, while the rate stood at 30.9 percent for luxury vehicles, the data showed.

The NEV penetration rate refers to the proportion of NEV sales in the total vehicle sales within a certain period.

Retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles stood at 951,000 units in July, down 3.9 percent year on year and bringing the cumulative retail sales in the first seven months to 5.67 million units.

Production of new energy passenger vehicles hit 1.45 million units in July, up 25.6 percent year on year, with cumulative output in the January-July period reaching 8.21 million units, up 7.9 percent year on year, according to the data.