GM China '09 sales may rise 20% on stimulus

General Motors Co., majority-owned by the U.S. government, expects its 2009 sales in China to grow at least 20 percent from a year earlier as government stimulus measures boost demand for minivans.

The automaker will likely sell more than 800,000 minivans and mini-trucks in China this year, China President Kevin Wale said in an interview in Shanghai today. The company sold more than 600,000 in the first seven months of the year through its SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co. venture.

Demand for vehicles made by GM, the largest overseas automaker in China, has risen this year as the government provides subsidies for rural drivers. Along with tax cuts, the handouts have allowed the country to avoid a slump in global vehicle sales and put it on course to surpass the U.S. as the world's largest automobile market this year.

The Detroit-based company sold 1.09 million vehicles in China last year. Sales this year have already topped 1 million vehicles, the third year in a row that GM's sales in the country have crossed that mark, the automaker said last week.

More than 64 percent of sales in the first seven months came from mini-commercial vehicles produced by GM Wuling. GM has a 34 percent stake in the venture. SAIC Motor Corp., China's largest domestic automaker, owns 50.1 percent. The rest is held by Wuling Motors, based in south China's Guangxi region.

GM is continuing talks with the country's second-largest automaker, China FAW Group Corp., about setting up a commercial- vehicle venture in the country. The tie-up will focus on producing light trucks, Wale added.