Volkswagen plans to more than triple its sales in south China by 2018 as a key part of its strategy to double sales to 2m units in the entire country by then, its local chief has said.
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“The extraordinary growth in our sales volume in China will continue to accelerate our pace of development and may well achieve far ahead of our schedule of 2018 of 2m units,” Winfried Vahland, president and CEO of Volkswagen’s China operations, told Reuters.
Volkswagen is a major dominant player in north and east China with over 20% share in each through its partnership with SAIC Motor and FAW Group but has only a 12% slice in the south.
“South China is today one of the wealthiest and most developed markets within Asia,” Vahland said.
South China, where Japan’s Toyota, Honda Motor and Nissan Motor all have manufacturing bases, is expected to contribute to about a third of the country’s GDP, up from 30% in 2008, official data showed, according to Reuters.
After launching its south China strategy in 2007 in Hong Kong, the largest tourist destination for mainland and a trendsetter for the whole Asia Pacific region, Volkswagen is now the best-selling European car maker in the territory with 21% in the first 10 months of this year, just behind Toyota’s 22%, but Volkswagen executives said they were confident to become top in 2010.
Vahland told the news agency he expected to sell about 1.4m vehicles in mainland China and Hong Kong this year, up more than 35% from 2008.
Twenty new models will be launched in China from 2010 to 2012, Vahland added.
