Mitsubishi Motors Corp set a goal of selling 300,000 cars in China by 2007 building the units in partners' plants in Taiwan and a venture in Beijing, a top executive said.
Mitsubishi will use plants owned by the local China Motor Co (
Mitsubishi is trying to expand outside the US to decrease the automaker's reliance on that market for profits, he said.
Mitsubishi's US sales account for the entirety of the fourth-largest Japanese automaker's profits, North American Chief Executive Officer Pierre Gagnon said in November.
The target is "a pretty tall order," said Graeme Maxton, managing director at Autopolis, based in Asia. Maxton expects the Chinese passenger car market to reach about 2.2 million units in 2007, which would give Mitsubishi Motors about 14 percent of the market.
In China, "you've got a load of entrenched competitors and all the big ones are investing," he said.
Honda Motor Co, Japan's second-largest automaker, said last month it plans to double production capacity in China to 240,000 units between this year and 2004.
China Motor, Taiwan's largest vehicle maker, will start making Lancer passenger cars as early as the first quarter at Southeast Motor, a venture with the government of Fujian, Torok said. The venture may sell 100,000 vehicles next year, compared with a projected 47,000 this year in China, one of the world's fastest-growing auto markets.
Southeast Motor, which makes Mitsubishi Freeca and Delica minivans, said in July it planned to expand annual capacity to 100,000 units within two years from 60,000.
Mitsubishi is working with DaimlerChrysler AG, which owns 37 percent of Mitsubishi, and Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co through the Beijing Jeep to have Montero Sport and Outlander models built in China and distributed, Torok said.
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