Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corp (BAIC), the country’s fifth-largest automaker, is pushing ahead with plans to start its own passenger car brand despite the arrest of its employee Yu Xiandong, who was indicted in the US in October and charged with stealing trade secrets from Ford, state media reported. A BAIC source said the company’s plans are not affected because Yu was only engaged in "some basic research activities," and was not involved in the company’s development of own-brand cars. BAIC, which has partnerships with Daimler AG and Hyundai Motor Co, will unveil several passenger car models at the Beijing Motor show next April, and plans to begin commercial production later in 2010, the sources said. The group expects to sell 2 million cars by 2011, up from 780,000 last year. Sales revenue is projected to grow from US$10.98 billion to US$29.29 billion during the same time period.