The Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (Group) booth at the Auto Shanghai 2011 car show. [Photo/Agencies]

SAIC Motor Corp Ltd, China's largest publicly traded automaker, on Dec 30 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.