Volkswagen AG, the second-largest overseas vehicle maker in China, boosted first-half sales in the country by 23 percent, almost twice the pace of market leader General Motors Corp.

The German car maker sold a total of 531,612 locally made and imported vehicles in the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau in the period, including 439,218 Volkswagen-brand automobiles, it said yesterday, as reported by Bloomberg News. China's overall passenger-car sales rose 17 percent in the period.

Volkswagen added at least six new or revamped models in the first half, as it seeks to increase China sales to more than 1 million vehicles this year. GM's sales grew 13 percent in the period, as drivers shunned its aging models in favor of Volkswagen and Toyota Motor Corp cars.

"Volkswagen has spread out new models more evenly than GM, helping boost sales," said Huang Zherui, an analyst at CSM Asia in Shanghai. "Still, there are a lot of negative factors in the second half, including the stock market plunge."

China's passenger-car sales rose 15 percent last month to 588,300, bringing the first-half total to 3.61 million, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday.

New car sales may cool in the rest of the year as consumers face inflation near a 12-year high as well as rising fuel costs. The CSI 300 Index, the nation's benchmark stock index, has dropped about 50 percent from its record high.

(Shanghai Daily July 9, 2008)