China's Jetour aims to more than triple car sales to 2 million units by 2030

BEIJING: Chinese sport-utility vehicle maker Jetour ‌aims to more than triple its sales to 2 million units by 2030, with half of that from overseas, a top executive told Reuters on Friday, as China’s automakers race to expand globally.

“We’ll ​maintain our competition in the China market, but we are more focused on ​the international market,” Jetour International President Ke Chuandeng said on the sidelines of ⁠the Beijing Auto Show. “The international market will provide more opportunity.”

Jetour is part of ​the Chery automotive group.

Last year Jetour’s sales rose almost 11% to 620,000 vehicles, with about 40% ​from overseas markets, Ke said.

Jetour launched operations in Brazil last month and in Poland in September. Ke said the automaker planned to start sales in Australia and in a couple more European markets before the ​end of the year.

China is the world’s largest car market but competition is intense ​and demand is expected to remain flat or slightly down for the next couple of years. In ‌order ⁠to grow, dozens of the country’s automakers have embarked on ambitious overseas expansion plans.

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This week, state-owned automakers Changan and Dongfeng joined a growing list of firms looking beyond China for growth.

“In China, the competition has become more fierce,” Ke said. “So now also all of the Chinese ​brands are focused on ​not only the domestic ⁠market, but mainly on international markets.”

While many Chinese automakers have focused on fully electric cars and plug-in hybrids, Jetour has only ​just launched its first electric model, called the TX.

To remain competitive ​in China, ⁠Ke said Jetour would launch two to three new electric models every year moving forward.

“We have a very complete product lineup for the future,” he said.

Ke added that Jetour would benefit from ⁠the ​economies of scale that come from being part of ​Chery, with smaller brands likely to struggle.

“There are so many brands in China, but we know that every year ​some of the brands will disappear,” Ke said.