Domestic Chinese brands sell even cheaper models-subcompacts at US$6,000, midsize cars for 15,000 U.S. dollars ¡ª which are still too costly for the large majority of the 1.3 billion Chinese but are affordable for the rapidly growing middle class.

Some of the best examples of Chinese cost efficiencies can be found at Geely, the only large, purely Chinese automaker that is not partly owned by a government agency and has not gotten its start with the benefit of loans from State-owned banks.

Geely, with 5 percent of the market, is the country's second-largest home-grown automaker, trailing Chery, a State-owned company with 7 percent.

Volkswagen brands hold the largest share of the market, at 16 percent, followed by General Motors, with 11 percent, also through a joint venture.

Many Chinese automakers are soaking up a lot of technical know-how through joint ventures, and some are buying technology outright, like Nanjing Automobile.

But many Chinese executives complain that Western companies do not transfer their very latest designs, and the Chinese are starting to step up their own research and development spending.

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