Beijing Hyundai eyes '09 sales of 400,000 cars

Shanghai, April 27 (Gasgoo.com) South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. has raised its China venture’s sales goal for this year by more than 11% to 400,000 cars as economic stimulus measures spur demand in the world's largest auto market, sina.com said today, citing an executive of the company.

In the first three months, Hyundai's Chinese venture Beijing Hyundai sold more than 109,000 vehicles, up 49% from a year earlier. This better-than-expected performance has boosted the confidence of the Korean carmaker in the Chinese market and encouraged it to raise the venture's car sales target to 400,000 units for this year.

"Judging from the data so far, China's economic stimulus policies seem to be working, at least for the auto industry," Beijing Hyundai Motor Co President Noh Jae Man told a group of reporters last week on the sidelines of the 2009 Shanghai auto show. Noh added that he expected the overall Chinese car market to grow 10 percent in 2009.

Beijing Hyundai's sales target for 2009 was raised to 400,000 cars from 360,000 units, compared with the previous year's 294,508 units. In addition, Hyundai Motor expects to import 30,000 cars into China this year, up from 25,000 units in 2008.

Beijing Hyundai, a 50-50 joint venture between Hyundai Motor and Beijing Auto, has displayed the Hyundai i30, BT01 and concept IX-ONIC models at the Shanghai show. More new models will follow up, including alternative-energy ones.