Toyota says Q1 China sales up 66 pct

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Thu Apr 5, 2007 6:57am EDT

(Adds Camry, Corolla sales figures; other details)

SHANGHAI, April 5 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.T) sold 66 percent more vehicles in mainland China and Hong Kong in the first quarter than a year earlier, helped largely by brisk demand for locally made Camry sedans.

Toyota, which competes with Honda Motor Co. (7267.T) and other global carmakers in China, sold 103,000 vehicles in the market during the three-month period, including 2,700 units in Hong Kong, a company official told Reuters on Thursday.

That outpaced 25 percent growth for General Motors Corp. (GM.N), which entered the China market much earlier and recorded much bigger sales of 291,588 vehicles in the mainland from Janurary to March.

Volkswagen AG (VOWG.DE), Ford Motor Co. (F.N) and other global automakers have yet to release quarterly sales figures for China.

Demand for the Camry, the best-selling car in the United States in eight of the past nine years, was strong in China as well, with sales of 36,000 units.

Toyota rolled out its first China-made Camry in May 2006 from a new plant in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, to wrest customers away from competing models such as Honda's Accord.

It aims to move 150,000 Camrys in China in 2007, more than one-third of its overall full-year sales target of 430,000 vehicles.

Sales of the Corolla, popular among young professionals, came to 19,000 units in the first quarter, said the official, who asked not to be named, adding that an upgraded version of the model could hit the market by the middle of the year.

In 2006, Toyota sold 308,000 vehicles in mainland China, up 68 percent from a year earlier.

((Reporting by Fang Yan, editing by Edmund Klamann; Reuters Messaging: yan.fang.reuters.com@reuters.net; +86 21 6104 1793)) Keywords: TOYOTA CHINA/

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