General Motors (GM) expects to sell around two million vehicles in China in 2010, at least two years ahead of its earlier sales schedules, Bloomberg reported. Having seen sales grow 67% to 1.83 million units in 2009, the company expects continued strong demand despite government plans to scale back purchase incentives. Last year the sales tax on vehicles with engines smaller than 2 liters was halved to 5% while cash incentives totaling US$732 million were offered to people who traded in their old cars for new ones. Beijing now plans to raise the purchase tax on small vehicles to 7.5%. Yu Bing, an analyst at Pingan Securities, expects China’s car market to grow 10-15% this year, with automakers likely to push medium- to high-end models in a bid to maintain profit growth. FAW Group, which has joint ventures with Volkswagen and Toyota, aims to sell more than 2.3 million vehicles this year. It sold 1.95 million in 2009, up 26.9% year-on-year.
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