SAIC Motor March sales up 17% at 462508 cars

Dow Jones Newswires (Shanghai) - SAIC Motor Corp. (600104.SH), China's largest carmaker by sales, said Monday it and its joint ventures sold 462,508 vehicles in March, up 17% from a year earlier.

The Shanghai-based carmaker runs passenger car-manufacturing joint ventures with Volkswagen AG (VOW.XE) and General Motors Co. (GM).

Shanghai Volkswagen Co., a 50-50 joint venture between SAIC and Volkswagen, reported a 24% rise in sales to 131,866 cars last month, and Shanghai General Motors Co., a 50-50 joint venture between SAIC and General Motors, posted a gain of 18% to 133,862 cars.

Commercial vehicle-making firm SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co., a joint venture between General Motors, SAIC and Liuzhou Wuling Motors Co., sold 156,232 vehicles in March, an increase of 11% year on year, said SAIC.

The company also sold 17,612 cars of home-grown brands, up about 10% from a year earlier.

In addition to the four major subsidiaries, SAIC also makes trucks and buses with other Chinese firms.