Honda ups China sales target on buoyant sales

Shanghai, November 21 (Gasgoo.com) Honda Motor Co has revised up its sales target in China to 500,000 vehicles on a strong year-to-date sales in the market, Jinghua newspaper reported today.   

Honda said yesterday sales of its two joint ventures in China climbed 2.4 pct year-on-years to 35,680 cars in October, underperforming an 8.36 percent gain in the overall market and below September's 3.5 percent rise.

In the first 10 months of 2008, however, car sales of the two joint ventures rose 17.9 pct year-on-year to 391,938 units, it said in a statement.

Guangzhou Honda Automobile Co Ltd, a 50-50 joint venture with Guangzhou Automobile Group, sold 25,032 vehicles in October, up 6.6 from a year earlier, while sales of the other joint venture, Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co Ltd, fell 6.2 pct from a year earlier to 10,648 units.

Honda's move is in sheer contrast with another Japanese automaker - Toyota Motor Corp, who on Wednesday cut its automobile sales forecast for China by 100,000 vehicles to 600,000 this year.