New | BAIC Motor seeks No 1 position in China's premium car segment

BAIC Motor Corp aims to be the No 1 seller in China's premium car market by 2020. The Beijing-based firm, partly owned by German giant Daimler, also plans to remain as the fourth-biggest seller among Sino-foreign ventures in the mass market.

"As a key business partner of Daimler, the company is highly consistent with Daimler in terms of strategic objective," BAIC said in a filing to Hong Kong's stock exchange on its five-year strategic plan unveiled on Monday.

"The company recognises the strategic objective of Daimler to resume the world's No 1 position by 2020 and will assist in promoting the ultimate achievement of this objective."

A mainland Chinese brokerage analyst, who cannot be named because of company policy, said reaching the goal was "hopeful but challenging".

She said BAIC and Daimler's joint venture planned to expand its annual output capacity to 700,000 units by 2020, while Volkswagen's Audi already had a capacity of 600,000 units.

But Mercedes sales were projected to grow 75 per cent to 250,000 units this year, thanks to new product launches, much higher than single-digit percentage growths expected of BMW and Audi, she added.

The share of made-in-China Mercedes in the premium market was expected to grow to more than 20 per cent this year from 15 per cent in 2013, while Audi's share had fallen to more than 40 per cent from 54 per cent, she said.