A Short Story

Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co., the Chinese carmaker that bought technology from Saab Automobile, is in talks to expand cooperation with the Swedish company.

 Beijing Auto is willing to extend the partnership, the company's President Wang Dazong said Thursday. The company paid about $193 million US for Saab technology related to three platforms, including the existing 9-3 and 9-5 models, the Chinese carmaker said in December.

Beijing Auto plans to invest $4.4 million to develop models that will help reduce reliance on its foreign partners Daimler AG and Hyundai Motor Co.

Chinese automakers including Beijing Auto and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. are acquiring brands and technology from overseas to help them grow internationally.

Saab is holding discussions with Beijing Auto about using the Chinese carmaker's local dealers, the Swedish company's CEO Jan-Aake Jonsson said Monday. The two may also agree to let Beijing Auto produce and sell Saab cars locally, he said.

The Chinese company plans to use Saab technology to develop as many as four cars and three turbo engines, chairman Xu Heyi said in December. It aims to sell 100,000 own-brand passenger vehicles in 2011.

Shares of Beiqi Foton Motor Co., the publicly traded unit of Beijing Auto, fell 2.5 per cent to close at $3 Thursday in Shanghai.

The carmaker plans to start producing at least two new own-brand models this year and to have a total of 20 by 2014, Wang added.

Beijing Auto aims to sell 1.5 million vehicles this year. The company's vehicle sales surged 61 per cent to 1.24 million units last year.

The carmaker is building three passenger-vehicle plants, two commercial-vehicle factories and one engine factory, adding 1.3 million units of production capacity to ease a shortage, Wang said.