SAIC Motor sees 12 pct vehicle sales growth in 2011
SAIC Motor Corp. Ltd, China's largest publicly traded automaker, Friday said it sold 4.01 million vehicles this year, up 11.9 percent from a year ago.
The sales growth was much higher than the around 3 percent growth for the whole industry in the world's largest auto market.
Following 32-percent growth in 2010, China's auto market saw much slower growth this year after scrapping small-car tax incentives and imposing purchase restrictions in Beijing.
Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng urged the carmaker to have its own core technology and brands to build itself into a competitive transnational company.
The Shanghai-based SAIC Motor has set up research and development (R&D) centers in Shanghai, Nanjing and Britain's Birmingham with a 2,000-member-strong R&D team, according to a press release.
The partner of Volkswagen and General Motors also said in the statement that it expects to unveil an own-brand plug-in hybrid car and an own-brand electric car next year.
