SHANGHAI: General Motors Co and its Chinese joint ventures sold 280,178 vehicles in China in Aug, up 14 percent from a year earlier, the US automaker said on Thursday.

That follows a 12.7 percent year-on-year rise in July and a 9.1 percent rise in June.

The company's sales in the first eight months of the year totaled 2.26 million vehicles, up 11.1 percent from the same period a year earlier.

GM plans to invest $12 billion in China between 2014 and 2017 and build five more plants to ramp up its manufacturing capacity, its China president Matt Tsien said at the Beijing auto show in April.

GM makes vehicles in China in partnership with China FAW Group Corp and SAIC Motor Corp Ltd.

Copyright Reuters, 2014