SHANGHAI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- In the first seven months of this year, Shanghai's automotive industry has maintained steady growth, with its industrial output value reaching 391.12 billion yuan (about 55 billion U.S. dollars), a comparable year-on-year growth rate of 10.6 percent.

Notably, Shanghai promoted more than 160,000 new energy vehicles (NEVs) citywide during the period, up 19.9 percent year on year, according to the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization.

From January to July this year, Shanghai's complete-vehicle production totaled 938,000 units, of which NEVs accounted for 573,000 units, or 61.1 percent of the city's total automotive output, the commission said.

Shanghai is actively promoting technological innovation in the intelligent connected vehicles sector, as well as the industry's development. To date, it has issued road test and demonstration application licenses to 902 vehicles belonging to 40 companies.

The total test mileage of such vehicles has exceeded 29.3 million kilometers across the city. Shanghai has also opened 1,586 test roads for intelligent connected vehicles, covering a total distance of 2,767 kilometers.  ■