German carmaker Volkswagen saw sales from its two main Chinese JVs rise about 40% in 2003 to more than 694,000 vehicles, exceeding its full-year sales target by nearly 100,000 cars.
Volkswagen, with about a 33% share of the Chinese market, expects to roll out 1.6 million vehicles in China annually in four years' time after a Euro 6 billion (US$7.6 billion) investment.
The country's number two foreign carmaker, General Motors (GM), said yesterday its China sales rose 46.4% to 386,710 units.
GM has said it foresees sales in China hitting three million units a year by 2012.