The company plans to launch six to eight new cars every year by 2010 to boost sales, he said.

It now makes trucks and buses under its own nameplate but assembles foreign-brand cars at a slew of joint ventures with Japan's Nissan and Honda, PSA Peugeot Citreon from France and South Korea's Kia.

Parent Dongfeng's sales jumped by a quarter to 742,200 vehicles in the first 10 months of this year from the same period in 2005. The sales included 516,000 trucks and buses and 226,200 cars.

In the meantime, sales of all China-made vehicles grew by a quarter to 5.77 million units.

Full-year sales are forecast to reach 7 million vehicles, which will enable China to unseat Japan as the world's No 2 vehicle market after the United States.

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