Shanghai GM's 2008 sales roughly same as 2007

BEIJING -(Dow Jones)- General Motors Corp.'s (GM) passenger vehicle-making joint venture in China will likely sell roughly the same number of units in 2008 as it did in 2007, the venture's executive vice president, Robert Socia, told Dow Jones Newswires on Tuesday.

"It will be pretty close to what we sold last year, with probably a little bit of growth on top," Socia said in a telephone interview.

Shanghai General Motors Corp. sold 479,427 units in 2007, a 16.9% rise from the previous years.

The U.S. auto maker's liquidity woes at home haven't affected its passenger vehicle operations in China, Socia said.

"We haven't had any sort of major impact at all," he said.

As Shanghai GM plans to launch 10 new models in the next 24 months, Socia said he doesn't believe GM will have to cut prices in China to compete.

However, the drastic slowdown in China's auto industry in 2008 has led the auto maker to put on hold plans discussed earlier this year for a new plant, he said.