The mainland's largest minibus maker, Brillance China Automotive Holdings Ltd, said yesterday that it sold 57 per cent more of its own brand vehicles in the first five months thanks to new models and improved consumer sentiment.

The company, a joint venture with Germany's BMW AG, sold 13,800 Zhonghua brand cars in the first five months, up 254 per cent from 3,900 cars in the same period last year, said vice-president Elsie Chan.

That compared with a sales target of 40,000 cars for the year and 10,000 cars sold in 2005, she told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Brilliance China also sold 30,300 minibuses from January to May, an increase of 25 per cent from 24,200 buses the previous year. It aims to sell 80,000 buses this year against 60,000 buses it sold last year.

The company was planning to raise sales prices by between 5 and 10 per cent, "The Standard" yesterday cited Brilliance Chairman Wu Xiaoan as saying.

Wu said he was confident that the company, which posted a 649 million yuan (US$80.94 million) loss in 2005, would return to profit this year on strong demand for vehicles.

Chan said the company planned to launch minibuses with new interior designs later this year, which may sell at higher prices. She also agreed that a 5-10 per cent increase was fair expectation.

The company has no intention of raising car prices, she said.

It launched a new model of Zhonghua, named Junjie, in March at a price of between 90,000 yuan (US$11,220) and 130,000 yuan (US$16,250).

"Junjie with different features will be launched later this year," she said. But the new cars will be sold in the same price range.

In January, Brilliance cut the price of the earlier version of Zhonghua, named Zunchi, by 10 per cent to 15 per cent to between 100,000 yuan (US$12,500) and 150,000 yuan (US$18,750).

The firm said in February that its joint venture sold 17,500 BMWs in 2005 but it would not give a sale target for BMWs for the year.

(HK Edition 06/03/2006 page3)