SAIC-GM-Wuling, GM's second largest Chinese joint venture, sold 1.3 million vehicles in 2011, 21st Century News Group reported today. The JV's performance was much stronger than that of its domestic rivals, several of which saw their sales fall ten percent or more from 2010 to 2011. SAIC-GM-Wuling, meanwhile, saw its sales increase 5.3 percent during that time period.

"We also faced some difficulties," JV General Manager Shen Yang said in an interview. "In April our sales fell to [just] 70,000 vehicles, which when compared with [our] monthly average of 120,000 vehicles, is equivalent to a rapid drop of over 40 percent." Mr. Shen attributes the JV's recovery to its quick reaction to the market. SAIC-GM-Wuling's market coverage increased from 39.4 percent in 2010 to 45.3 percent last year.

Despite the market outlook for 2012 still relatively bleak, SAIC-GM-Wuling has set an sales target of 1.35 million sales for the year, with great attention placed on increasing passenger automobile and export sales.

In other news, SAIC-GM-Wuling announced that it has already begun research and development work on a new hatchback model for its own brand Baojun line. The new car is scheduled to be produced in 2013. The Baojun 630 sedan (pictured), released in November 2010, is still performing strongly, with 9,006 units sold this January.