Shanghai, April 26 (Gasgoo.com) Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest automaker, said the company's medium-term aim in China is to sell more than 2 million vehicles per year, Dow Jones reported, citing the car company's top executive.
The German auto giant sees the Chinese car market growing by 75% by 2018 and the Indian market more than doubling over the same time frame, Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn said Thursday to shareholders in Hamburg, adding that VW aims to focus on boom regions in the future.
VW plans to invest 4.4 billion euros in new vehicles and expanding production capacity in China. The automaker, which is targeting sales of more than 2 million vehicles in China in the "medium-term," is producing at "maximum capacity" in China, Winterkorn said.
Last year, Volkswagen sold more than 1.4 million vehicles in mainland China, an increase of 36.7% from 2008, retaining its lead in China's passenger car market. Auto sales in China, now the world's largest market, have been boosted by government incentives.
In the first quarter this year, Volkswagen and its two local joint ventures, FAW-VW and Shanghai-VW, sold 457,259 cars in China, up 61% year on year. The Santana and Jetta sedans together accounted for almost a third of VW's China sales.
In the medium term, Volkswagen aims to sell around 8 million new vehicles globally, a 27% increase from last year's sales, to knock Toyota Motor from its spot as the world's number one carmaker.
