Workers on an SUV production line on the BAIC (Beijing Automotive Group Co.) in Beijing. (File photo: VCG)

BEIJING, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- China's leading automaker Beijing Automotive Group Co., Ltd. (BAIC) announced Thursday that it had sold more than 2.4 million vehicles in 2018.

Despite a bumpy year in China's auto market in 2018, the automaker achieved annual revenue of 480.7 billion yuan (around 71 billion) and a profit of 30.1 billion yuan, up 2.2 percent and 7.3 percent year on year respectively.

Beijing Electric Vehicle Co. (BJEV), the electric car-making arm of BAIC, reported a total sales of 158,000 units last year, an increase of 53 percent over the previous year.

Although China's auto sales dropped in 2018, the sales of new energy vehicles (NEV) soared by 61.74 percent year-on-year to 1.26 million units, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed.

Thanks to the government's preferential policies to boost clean energy use to curb pollution, China has become one of the fastest-growing NEV markets.

Established in 1958 and headquartered in Beijing, BAIC set its sales target of 2019 at 2.45 million units.