"More than 80 percent of the cars are purchased by first-time buyers in China, indicating that China can easily accept new products and new technologies," said Brian Link, managing director of Ernst & Young's global automotive center in Shanghai.

GM's Wale said the Beijing auto show combines both international automakers and homegrown brands, something no other global auto show can offer. "Although we have to stage our products together with domestic rivals, competition is good for the market and development of the industry."

China's fledgling automakers are showcasing their ambitions to expand into global markets.

Geely Holding Group, a 13-year-old brand barely known abroad before it agreed in March to buy Sweden's Volvo from Ford for $1.8 billion, is showing 55 of its own models, including 11 new vehicles.

Geely says it hopes to boost sales this year by 22 percent over 2009 to 400,000 units.

Other Chinese producers plan to unveil a total of 64 new models, according to organizers.

China overtook the US as the world's top automobile market last year, with more than 13 million vehicles sold, and is expected to continue the strong growth in the next decade.

Domestic vehicle sales in the first quarter hit 4.61 million units, up 72 percent from last year, according to figures released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Buoyed by the figures, 50 senior executives from both foreign and domestic players have raised their estimate of the average annual auto sales growth in China to 20 percent till 2015, up from 10 percent, according to a study by the global business-advisory firm AlixPartners.