State auto company invests heavily to drive sales

CHONGQING -- State-owned auto company Chang'an AutoMobile Group will pump 30 billion yuan ($4.7 billion) in the next five years into the brand's research and development as it seeks to boost sales amid a sluggish car market.

The group will allocate at least 5 percent of its annual turnover to R&D each year, which will amount to 30 billion yuan from 2016 to 2020, Chang'an vice president Li Wei said at an ongoing exhibition in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing.

It also aims to train more than 10,000 technicians in the next five years, Li added.

China's auto sector, which experienced years of explosive growth, saw sales up by a mere 1.4 percent year on year in the first half of 2015, with about 12 million vehicles sold, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Industry insiders predict this year's growth to be a tepid 3 percent instead of the expected 7 percent.

But Chang'an sold 751,000 vehicles from Jan to Sept, up 32.1 percent year on year and 11.4 percent higher than the industry average.

Chang'an president Zhu Huarong attributed its solid sales on technology.