General Motors Co (GM), the biggest overseas automaker in China, said its sales in the nation rose 22 percent in July, aided by the popularity of Chevrolet cars, while Ford Motor Co's sales fell during the same period.

The company sold a total of 176,645 vehicles last month in the world's largest auto market, after boosting sales of Chevrolet models by 70 percent to 35,385 units, the company said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday. Sales of GM-brand vehicles rose 45 percent to 1.3 million in the first seven months of the year, it added.

GM is counting on expansion in China and other overseas markets to bolster profits as it prepares for an initial public offering (IPO) as early as the fourth quarter. GM's first-half sales in China surpassed those in the United States for the first time this year as the world's fastest-growing major economy propelled global auto demand.

"GM has been doing the right thing by tapping demand growth in smaller cities with smaller cars," said Han Weiqi, an analyst at CSC International Holdings Ltd in Shanghai.

"When overall demand growth slows in the second half, companies deploying the wrong approaches will be hit much harder."

Ford's sales decline

Changan Ford Sales Co, the Chinese sales unit of Ford, said in a statement on Tuesday that it delivered 18,255 vehicles in July, a decline of 6.3 percent from a year earlier. Sales in July 2009 by Changan Ford totaled 19,486, the automaker said on its website last year.

Rachel Zhang, a Chongqing-based spokeswoman for Changan Ford, didn't immediately return calls to her cell phone when contacted by Bloomberg News.

China's total passenger car sales to consumers rose 15.4 percent last month to 822,300, the China Automotive Technology & Research Center said on Monday. Vehicle demand may weaken in August, the center said.

GM, which makes vehicles including Buick Excelle cars and Chevrolet Cruze compacts with its Chinese joint-venture partner SAIC Motor Co in China, has added new models at a much faster pace than Ford, Han said.

GM, based in Detroit, Michigan, is refreshing its lineup in China with new models such as the Chevrolet Sail compact and Buick Excelle GT small sedan, the automaker said last month.

The company also makes Sunshine minivans at SAIC-GM-Wuling Automotive Co, a separate joint venture in which the US automaker has a 34 percent stake.

Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) AG, the world's biggest manufacturer of luxury cars, reported the biggest profit in two-and-a-half years after demand for the new 5 Series surged and sales advanced in China and the United States.

Second-quarter net income attributable to shareholders gained more than six fold to 831 million euros ($1.09 billion) from 119 million euros a year earlier, the Munich-based carmaker said in a statement on Tuesday. Profit beat the 546 million-euro average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Revenue rose 18 percent to 15.3 billion euros.

Record sales in China, the world's biggest auto market, and a rebound in the US have prompted BMW and rival Daimler AG to lift their 2010 forecasts. BMW has sold 25,000 of the new 5 Series since the sedan went on sale in Europe in March, the carmaker reported on Tuesday. Daimler said last week its third quarter would be determined by how fast it could produce Mercedes-Benz brand cars to meet orders.