Southeast Motor Co (東南汽車), a car-making venture between China Motor Corp (中華汽車) and the Fujian provincial government, forecasts it will boost sales by as much as 80 percent this year as it introduces new models.
Southeast Motor projects it will sell as many as 150,000 cars this year in China, where total demand is forecast at 5 million units, China Motor said in a statement.
Southeast Motor's sales last year rose to 83,533 units from 47,068 units in 2002. China Motor is Taiwan's biggest vehicle maker.
Southeast Motor plans to introduce Mitsubishi Motor Corp's Savrin and Veryca models this year and projects 2005 sales of 200,000 cars, the statement said.
China is expected to surpass Germany as the world's third largest maker of automobiles this year, with production set to hit 5.15 million units, state press reported yesterday.
"According to the current developmental trend of the domestic auto industry, domestic auto demand will surpass five million vehicles," the Oriental Morning Post quoted State Information Center deputy director Xu Changming as saying.
Xu's forecast for 5.15 million units is in line with Chinese analysts' estimates for production of 5 million to 5.3 million vehicles.
Last year China surpassed France as the world's fourth largest automaker with 4.4 million vehicles rolling off its assembly lines on the back of burgeoning consumer demand.
The country's auto consumption accounted for 4.2 percent of the global total in 2001.
RSS