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Volkswagen, GM drive up strong sales growth
By Yu Qiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-05 09:31
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The venture with SAIC is now producing the Santana, Passat, Polo, Gol and Touran. It will introduce a Skoda Octavia next year.
The venture with FAW, whose line-up now includes Volkswagen Jetta, Sagitar, Bora, Golf and Caddy as well as Audi A6 and A4, will launch a redesigned Bora on Saturday.
China sales of the Volkswagen brand, including Skoda, rose by one-fourth to 306,859 units in the first half of this year, the German carmaker said.
Meanwhile, Audi brand sales almost doubled to 38,459 units.
Kevin Wale, president of GM China Group, said in a statement that it benefited from a stronger-than-expected Chinese vehicle market in the first half of this year.
"We will remain aggressive in the second half," Wale said.
"We are in the midst of rolling out about 12 new and upgraded products while expanding our sales networks this year to keep up with the rising demand for our vehicles."
He expected GM's China sales will be expanded by more than 20 per cent this year from 2005.
GM runs a joint venture with SAIC, assembling the Buick Excelle, Regal and LaCrosse, Chevrolet Sail, Aveo, Lova and Epica, as well as Cadillac CTS.
Its other joint venture with SAIC and Wuling Motor in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region makes the Chevrolet Spark and Wuling-brand mini-vans.
In the first half of this year, Buick sales in China grew by 38.7 per cent to 145,786 units. China sales of the Chevrolet brand amounted to 75,710 units, up 81.4 per cent.
French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen's joint venture with China's Dongfeng Motor announced on Monday that its sales jumped by 38 per cent to 100,173 cars from January to June.