China's passenger vehicle sales climbed 2.4% in December from a year earlier to 2.19 million units, the China Passenger Car Association said on Tuesday.

For all of 2022, when stringent COVID lockdowns disrupted production and hurt buyer appetite, sales managed only a small increase of 1.6%.

However, sales of so-called new energy passenger vehicles, which include pure electric and plug-in hybrid cars, jumped 35.1% in December and accounted for 27% of total passenger vehicle sales in 2022, CPCA data showed.

Tesla Inc saw its December sales in China plunge 41% from a year ago despite offering deep discounts. (Reporting by Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Edwina Gibbs)