Beijing - German auto giant Volkswagen on Thursday said it had sold more than 100,000 Skoda vehicles in China this year, passing the landmark for the first time and setting a new record in the rapidly expanding Chinese auto market.

Skoda China president Alfred Rieck hailed the performance of Skoda in reaching the landmark in only its third year in China.

"There are two elements supporting this event to happen this year," said Rieck, who is also executive vice president of Volkswagen Group China.

"First of all, we have an incredible market growth boosting the figures of the entire industry," he said in a statement.

"But secondly, and that is the more important element for us, Skoda is having a very high customer acceptance," Rieck said. "And this true for all three car lines introduced in China."

Rieck pointed out that the sales record was reached despite Skoda still not having a full dealer network in China, which he said it needs to develop to "cover the country in such a way that our brand will be close to the customer."

He said the apparent popularity of its three models in China had made Skoda "rethink the pace of spreading the brand out over the whole country".

Skoda said cumulative direct sales passed the 100,000 mark on Wednesday after reaching 95,677 by the end of October, up 93 per cent year-on-year.

It said it had sold 160,000 units of its first "strategic model," the Octavia, over the past two years.

Its reported sales soared from 27,112 in the second half of 2007 to 59,284 in the whole of 2008 and 100,000 so far this year.

Last month, the Volkswagen group also announced new monthly and three-quarterly sales records in China, projecting annual growth of 30 per cent in its biggest global market.

Volkswagen Group China said 1,061,964 vehicles were delivered to mainland and Hong Kong customers from January to September, an increase of 37 per cent year-on-year.

The Chinese government recently forecast that vehicle sales were expected to reach 12 million in this year, including about 10 million passenger cars.

German carmaker BMW AG and its Chinese partner Brilliance Automotive Holdings Ltd on Thursday said they planned to invest 5 billion yuan (735 million dollars) over the next two years to expand joint-venture production in China to up to
300,000 vehicles annually.

But some analysts warned that aggressive expansion plans by foreign and Chinese car makers were likely to lead to a surplus of passenger cars in China in the next few years. (dpa)