China's efforts to promote the use of domestic-brand cars may include making FAW's Red Flag sedans the official car for minister-level officials, the newspaper said, without saying where it received the information.

The policy may affect Volkswagen AG's Audi brand, which is the most-widely used sedan by government officials, the newspaper noted.

"If the government replaced all its Audi cars with Red Flag cars, the replacement may not affect the absolute quantity of sales, but it would reshape Red Flag's brand," said Jenny Gu, an analyst at industry researcher LMC Automotive in Shanghai.

Martin Kuehl, a Beijing-based spokesman for Audi, said the company doesn't comment on speculation. Calls to the office of FAW board secretary Wang Wenquan seeking comment went unanswered.

China FAW Group Corp., parent of the Changchun-based automaker, has production ventures with Volkswagen and Toyota Motor Corp.