Luxury car makers from the United States, Europe and Japan are targeting China's new rich.

Two models of DaimlerChrysler's luxury sedan Maybach were spotlighted at the German auto giant's 3,400-square-meter pavilionat China's biggest auto show , running from June 9 to 16.

Peter Honegg, president of Mercedes-Benz's China division, was quoted by Beijing Daily Messenger as saying that the company expects to sell 1,000 Maybachs annually in China.

The sedan is sold so far at 5.38 million to 6.18 million yuan.

According to Mercedes-Benz and Audi reports issued last month, 130,000 Chinese are driving Mercedes-Benz while 63,000 have Audi sedans.

In China's economic hub Shanghai, British Bingley has sold 15 sedans since the beginning of this year and it said the sales are very much likely to end as 20 this year, double from last year.

"The growth of China's luxury market was impressive in recent years," said Honegg, "I was surprised to learn that many rich Chinese know Maybach well."

Two days before the auto show's opening, Ford said it would start dealerships of Aston Martin, its sports car series, in China next year.

And General Motors will begin to produce its Cadillac sedans inits Shanghai joint venture factory this year.

Japanese auto giant Toyota Motor Corp. announced Tuesday last week in Tokyo that it will open six exclusive Lexus dealerships in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen this year and plans to increase the number to 14 by the middle of 2005.

So far only Volkswagen's Audi and BMW were produced in China. BMW has produced five models in China and Audi will soon put two new models on the Chinese market.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, each urban Chinese had 8,472 yuan (1,042 US dollars) of disposable annual income in average in 2003.

The rich, accounting for 10 percent of the country's population,owned 45 percent of the wealth in cities.

In 2003, Chinese owned 4.89 million private cars, 42.56 percentmore than the previous year.

However, China's car sales dropped in April by 3 percent from March though still higher than April 2003 and insiders worried about a continuous drop in May.

Source: Xinhua