Brilliance to sell 500,000 cars annually by 2010

Shanghai, January 21 (Gasgoo.com) Brilliance Auto has plans to boost its annual sales of vehicles to 500,000 units by 2010 from 285,000 units it sold in 2008, said sina.com today, citing the compay's latest strategic blueprint.

Amid the auto market downturn, Brilliance Auto sold 285,200 vehicles in 2008, short of its sales target of 300,000 units for the year. The company’s new mid-term strategic plans specify that its vehicle sales should grow 19% to 338,000 units in 2009 and the annual sales will surge to 500,000 vehicles in 2010. Meanwhile, Brilliance also aims to sell 500,000 engines a year by 2010.

Last year, Brilliance's sales of 285,200 vehicles, though down 5% from 2007 as the first drop in its history since 1992, generated sales revenue of 41 billion yuan ($6 billion). The company said that its sales income is expected to reach 800,000 yuan in 2010 when 500,000 vehicles are sold.

Brilliance Auto will start production at its new A-class car plant, which will have an annual capacity of 150,000 units. At the new facility, the company will build three A-class car models, including sedan and crossover models on the FRV platform.

The Chinese automaker has recently unveiled two self-developed sedan models, the Zhonghua Junjie Wagon and the 2009 Zhonghua Zunchi, which are separately priced at 108,000-159,800 yuan and 125,800-249,800 yuan.

Brilliance Auto CEO Qi Yumin expected that China's auto industry would recover in the second half of 2009 as the Chinese government pushed out massive stimulus policies to boost vehicle sales.