Foton Motor lifts '09 sales target to 560,000 units

Shanghai, July 16 (Gasgoo.com) China's leading commercial-vehicle maker Beiqi Foton Motor, a subsidiary of Beijing Auto, has decided to raise its sales target for this year to 560,000 units from the previously planned 420,000 units, said China Securities Journal today.

In the first half this year, Foton Motor bucked the commercial vehicle market slump and saw its sales grow by 14.5% year on year (y/y) to 28.7 vehicles, retaining its lead in China's CV sales. The company's MP-X and Midi MPV models achieved sales growth of more than 126%, and sales of the Foton View minibus also rose by 30% in the six-month period.

China's CV market benefited little from the government's stimulus policies in the first half, during which the country's CV output and sales came to 1.572 million (up 1.64% y/y) and 1.565 million units (down 0.52% y/y) respectively. Only the truck segment saw its sustained growth.

Based on its optimistic expectations of the commercial vehicle market for the second half, Foton Motor has scaled up its sales target of this year to 560,000 units from the 420,000 units that it previously planned to sell in 2009. 

The automaker aims at annual sales of more than 1.5 million units and revenues exceeding 120 billion yuan by 2015, with sales overseas taking up over 30% of the total.

Foton Motor has included new energy vehicle into its development strategy and will develop a number of new-energy vehicles of different models in the future.