Geely in drive to ramp up auto exports

Chinese carmaker Geely Automobile Holdings has set a sales and production target of two million units by 2015, two-thirds of which it hopes to export. Executives say this will be met in a three-stage process over the next three years.

Zhao Fuquan, a Geely executive director, said having reached its mid-term sales target, the carmaker is confident it can reach this year's sales target of 240,000 cars.

In the first half-year, Geely sold 121,690 cars, representing growth of 12 percent over the same period last year.

This was despite the rising cost of resources and contraints posed by the mainland government's macroeconomic tightening measures.

These have dampened the performance of the auto industry, according to the China Association of Automobiles Manufacturers.

The combined sales of the three new Geely models - King Kong, Vision and Free Cruiser - now make up over 90 percent of its total sales.

Meanwhile, in this year alone, Zhao said the company hopes to produce 90,000 to 100,000 of its new Geely Panda mini-car model, to be launched in August. One-third of these are slated for export, he said.

The company has also finished research and development on two sportscars specifically targeting the European and American markets. The two models - the FC-2 and FC-3 - will be launched next March.