Geely Group, China's largest privately-owned carmaker, only fulfilled 28 percent of its annual sales goal in the first four months of 2007, company sources said on Saturday.

The Hong Kong-listed carmaker sold 67,201 motor vehicles from January to April, a year-on-year growth of seven percent. But the company was dissatisfied as it fell well short of its annual goal of 240,000 units.

Company sources attributed the disappointing sales figures to the cut-throat price war on the domestic auto market.

However, the sources said, Geely planned to put a new model, dubbed Vision, on the market. This will help the company fulfill its annual sales goal in the remaining months of the year, the sources added.

Geely Group, which began production in 1996, sold 175,635 cars last year, up 32 percent from the previous year.

In a related development, Geely signed with Manganese Bronze Holdings, manufacturer of the reputed London taxi "Black Cab", an agreement in October last year to jointly produce 20,000 units of the taxi annually from 2008 in a new facility adjacent to Geely's automobile production base in Shanghai .

The first Chinese-made model of the famous London cab debuted at the 12th Shanghai Automobile and Technology Exhibition in late April.

Geely will sell the London cabs in Asia, while Manganese Bronze, which invested 19.85 million pounds in the joint venture, will sell the cars to markets outside Asia.
Last year, Geely exported 15,000 cars to 40-odd countries.

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