(Yicai) Oct. 11 -- China's sales of new energy vehicles rebounded strongly last month, lifting the country’s auto market out of the doldrums, as vehicle trade-in policies and car scrapping allowances rolled out in July start to take effect.

Sales of new energy vehicles surged 51 percent in September from the year before and advanced 9 percent from August to 1.1 million units, according to the latest data released by the China Automobile Dealers Association yesterday.

The improvement was reflected across the board. Sales of passenger cars climbed 2 percent in September from the year before and 8 percent from the previous month to 2.1 million units, the association said.

"As policies are adopted in more places, fourth-quarter sales volume will be pushed up even more," Fan Yu, deputy secretary general at the CADA's department of industry coordination, told Yicai.

The sales uptick will continue this month and into the fourth quarter, said Lang Xuehong, deputy secretary general at CADA.

The association’s Vehicle Inventory Alert Index dipped 3.8 percentage points last month from a year ago and 2.2 percentage points from August to 54. A reading above 50 indicates expansion and an improvement in prosperity.

"The index reached a small peak of 62.3 percent in June and began to tumble in July," Fan said.

The alert index for Chinese marques was the lowest, mainly because they tend to have well developed electric car businesses. But joint-venture car makers as well as high-end and imported brands remain under pressure.

Car dealers were cautious when forecasting sales in the fourth quarter and most said that sales will be roughly the same as a year ago. Some, though, were upbeat, anticipating a jump of between 5 percent and 10 percent.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Kim Taylor