China car production could triple by 2020

Detroit January 19 (Inside Line) The head of Beijing Automotive Industry Corp., one of China's largest state-owned vehicle manufacturers, predicts that the country will triple its annual vehicle production over the next 10 years. By 2020, adds Wang Dazong, the president of BAIC, China will be building half of all the vehicles in the world — roughly 40 million units a year.

Wang made his bold prediction last week in Detroit, at the annual Automotive News World Congress.

He said BAIC expects its vehicle sales to double by 2015, to 3 million units a year. The company builds cars, trucks and utility vehicles in China under the Beiqi and Foton brands, and operates joint ventures with Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Mitsubishi and Chrysler. It also bought the tooling to the previous-generation Saab 9-3 and 9-5.

For the past two years, China has built more passenger vehicles than the United States, reaching nearly 14 million units in 2010.