Fueled by a stronger-than-expected performance in the first three quarters, German carmaker Volkswagen Group expects its China sales to grow by more than 30 percent this year from 2008.

The group's combined sales on the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong jumped 37 percent to 1.06 million cars in the first nine months this year, surpassing the 1.02 million units it sold in the whole of 2008, Volkswagen Group China said.

The robust sales ensured Volkswagen will maintain its two-decade-long leadership in China's passenger car market.

In September alone the group's sales hit a new monthly record of 150,000 cars.

"Based on our current figures, we expect solid double-digit growth of more than 30 percent for the group for the whole year," said Winfried Vahland, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group China.

Volkswagen added such strong performance this year will help it achieve its 2018 target of selling 2 million cars in China ahead of schedule.

"As a locomotive of the world economy, China keeps growing at a high rate. Its passenger car market has experienced unexpectedly high growth and all our locally produced brands - Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda - have registered remarkable sales records month by month," Vahland said.

"We will introduce several new models in China until the end of 2009. We will also speed up the investment flow and increase our production capacity."

In the first nine months of this year, 871,037 Volkswagen brand cars were sold in China, an increase of 36.3 percent year-on-year, while sales of Audi rose by 19.7 percent to 108,859 units, cementing the brand's reign in the luxury car segment, and Volkswagen Group's Czech unit Skoda sold 81,652 cars in China, skyrocketing 82.1 percent.

Volkswagen in March announced that it planned to invest a total of 4 billion euros (nearly $6 billion) between 2009 and 2011 to expand production capacity and develop new products in China.

As a result of China's economic rebound and incentive measures from the government, the domestic vehicle market has experienced explosive growth this year, beating all analysts' forecasts at the beginning of the year.

Vehicle sales in China shot up 34.24 percent to 9.66 million units in the first three quarters, topping the figure for all of last year, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

The association predicted last week that overall sales this year would exceed 12 million vehicles.

Boosted by the strong demand, other global automakers have also enjoyed robust sales in China this year.

At the beginning of this month, General Motors announced that its China sales surged by 55.6 percent to 1.29 million vehicles in the first nine months from a year earlier, including 801,869 minivans.

Ford Motor Co, a latecomer to China, sold 316,639 vehicles in this market during the period, a surge of 32 percent.

Volkswagen is to launch a new-generation Golf compact car on Monday at its joint venture with FAW Group in northeastern city of Changchun. The venture also makes Volkswagen Jetta, Bora, Sagitar and Magotan as well as the Audi A4, A6 and Q5.

The German group's other tie-up with SAIC Motor Corp in Shanghai will launch a Tiguan compact SUV around the end of this year. This partnership also builds the Volkswagen Santana, Passat, Polo, Touran and Lavida as well as the Skoda Fabia, Octavia and Superb.

(China Daily 10/19/2009 page7)