Geely aims to drive up sales by 25% in '09

CHINA'S Geely Automobile Holdings Group said it aims to boost vehicle sales by 25 percent this year as it introduces new models and taps government incentives to revive the slumping domestic auto market.

The private car maker plans to sell 281,000 units this year, against nearly 225,000 units in 2008, a company official, Zhang Xiaodong, told Shanghai Daily in a telephone interview.

Geely will add eight models to its product line-up this year. The auto maker will launch two models in the market every quarter, Zhang disclosed.

Geely will debut new models under three sub brands -- the Eagle, Imperial and TX. Its Geely Panda sub-compact hit the domestic market on November 19. It earlier targeted a sales boost of 2 million units globally by 2015 with a 2.5-percent global market share. Two-thirds of its products are sold in overseas markets.

Geely, the only independent Chinese car maker as it has not formed any alliances with foreign counterparts, reported nearly unchanged sales in 2008 from a year earlier as domestic vehicle demand fell and exports shrank dramatically amid a global financial crisis which has also affected China.

"The crisis also provided opportunities for us to enhance technology, products as well as services for sustained development," Li Shufu, chairman of Geely, said on November 7 in Shanghai, adding that the firm is "more confident to achieve goals" with favorable policies.

Car sales in China slumped 10 percent in November, the biggest fall in more than three years, prompting car makers to call for government measures to help the market rebound.