Pudong aims for 250-bln-yuan auto industry by 2020

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Shanghai Pudong New Area, which has been a landmark of China's modernization, has planned for more than 250-billion-yuan (36.6 billion US dollars) auto industry by 2020, as a part of its branding development campaign.

In 1990, Pudong was pushed to the forefront of the whole national economic reform movement and soon spearhead China's reform and opening up with boosting economic growth.

Pudong's GDP jumped from 6.24 billion yuan in 1990 to 965.14 billion yuan last year, with an average annual growth rate of 15.1 percent.

Among the three major pillar industries supporting the surging economy, auto manufacturing ranked as the second largest with a value of about 220 billion yuan, according to data from local government.

As the local government's plan for "Made in Shanghai" branding campaign, with Pudong's car makers and auto parts suppliers, the area will expand the manufacturing of new energy vehicles and promote research on Internet of cars as well as autonomous cars technology.

China's biggest car maker and local partner for Volkswagen and General Motors, SAIC Motor Corp Ltd, whose factory in Pudong went into operation in 2008, has confidence in the plan with great performance in 2017.

SAIC sold 6.93 million vehicles last year, with 6.8 percent year-on-year growth, more than double the Chinese auto industry's average growth pace and topped among all car makers in China for the 12th year in a row.

The Shanghai-based car maker has sold 3.5 million vehicles in the first half of 2018, 11 percent higher than the last year, according to the middle year earnings report released last Friday.

SAIC also saw 104 percent growth of overseas sales growth, with 130,000 vehicles sold from January to June.

Moreover, the group aims for 100 percent year-on-year growth for the units of its new energy vehicle sold in 2018, said Hu Shunhua, Secretary of CPC Committee at SAIC's passenger automobile branch.

The trade war has not caused much influence now, Hu said, noting SAIC's major overseas markets includes countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

The car maker has increasingly looked abroad and said in March that its overseas sales could quintuple up to 1 million units over the next decade.