Volkswagen aims to sell more than a million vehicles in China next year, its head of Chinese operations said Oct. 12. The business daily Handelsblatt quoted Winfried Vahland as saying Europe's biggest automaker was also looking for manufacturing bases in the country.
VW was not planning to take over a domestic producer however, but would either build a new factory or possibly buy an existing production site, Vahland said.
In the long-term, VW aimed for a 20% share of the Chinese car market, from more than 18% currently, the paper reported.
On Oct. 11, VW posted strong Chinese sales, prompting the carmaker to raise its full-year sales guidance for the country to 900,000 units from a previous target of 800,000. In the first nine months of 2007, the automaker increased its sales in China by 30% to 684,786 vehicles.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007
