Ford Motor reports sales rise in China, GM grows slow

Ford Motor Cosaid sales in China rose 25 percent in the first half as the popularity of Focus cars help attract motorists, while Shanghai General Motors posted slower sales growth in the period due to lack of new models, according to Bloomberg.

Ford Motor, the second-biggest US automaker, sold a total of 93,206 vehicles in the first six months of the year, the company said in an e-mailed statement today.

Shanghai General Motors Co, China's second-largest passenger car assembler, posted slower sales growth in the first six months as it introduced fewer new models.

The General Motors Corp venture boosted sales 12 percent to 225,502 in the first six months, it said in a statement posted on its Website late yesterday. Sales rose 49 percent in the first half of last year and 32 percent in the whole of 2006.

Shanghai GM added two new or revamped models in the first half, including the luxury Buick Park Avenue Flagship, compared with about 10 a year earlier. Volkswagen AG boosted its China sales 25 percent in the first half.

Chery Automobile Co ranked fourth in China car sales last year, the first time it has been in the top five. The company yesterday signed a deal to begin making vehicles for DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group unit.

Shanghai GM, half-owned by Shanghai Automotive Co, began selling the Park Avenue, priced from 498,800 yuan (US$66,000), in April. It introduced the revamped Chevrolet Epica a month earlier. About 15 new car models were introduced in China in the first five months.

Volkswagen, which has two car ventures in China, sold a total of 431,369 cars in mainland China and Hong Kong in the first half, it said yesterday.

SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co, the country's largest passenger car assembler is the first five months of the year, hasn't yet released first-half sales figures.