(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-05 10:36

Changan Automotive Group, China's fourth largest automaker, said its 2007 sales rose 24.3 percent to a record 57.4 billion yuan ($7.86 billion) as it rolled out new models and cooperated with global carmakers to expand in the fast growing market.

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The sales figure made Changan the first company in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing to surpass the 50-billion-yuan milestone, company chairman and president Xu Liuping said.

Changan Auto, a joint venture partner with Ford Motor Co and Mazda Motor Corp, said it sold an estimated 850,000 cars in 2007, up 20 percent from a year earlier. Its production rose 22 percent to 870,000. It didn't provide a breakdown of the sales.

Changan Auto planed to produce 2 million vehicles annually by 2010, with an output value of 100 billion yuan, a company statement said.

Exports topped 40,000 cars last year, against 21,700 in 2006. Its in-house minivan models Benni and Joice had gained popularity in overseas markets, it said.

Last month the company unveiled China's first domestically developed hybrid car, the Joice HEV.

To meet expanding demand in the world's second-largest car market, where sales are expanding at double-digit annual rates, Changan Auto, Ford and its Japanese affiliate Mazda began mass production at a new engine plant in the eastern city of Nanjing last April.

Chongqing-based Changan Ford Mazda Co was formed in 2006 when Mazda joined Changan Ford Co., which was established in 2001. The joint venture sold a record 129,790 Ford cars in 2006, more than double the 2005 figure.

The joint venture opened a second plant in Nanjing in September, with an initial annual capacity of 160,000 cars, including the all-new Mazda 2 compact. The plant represents part of Mazda's plan to sell 300,000 cars in China by 2010.