CHINA will aim to have the capacity to make 30 million cars a year by 2020, an industry association said, a figure that is lower than analysts’ estimates of its current annual production capacity.

    The capacity target was in an advance copy of a speech that Vice Secretary Shi Jianhua of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) made Friday, predicting what targets the Communist Party will set out for the auto industry when it meets later this month to decide the country’s economic blueprint for 2016 to 2020.

    The speech does not specify whether the 30 million refers to passenger cars or the overall auto market, but consultancy IHS estimates China will produce 23.5 million passenger and light commercial vehicles this year and already has capacity to make 36 million annually.

    Shi predicts that the country’s next five-year plan will aim for an annual production capacity of 2 million units for plug-in hybrids and battery-electric vehicles by 2020, and to have already produced 5 million vehicles, the speech says.

    It also aims to lift the market share of Chinese brand cars to more than 60 percent, from roughly 41 percent of the passenger car market so far this year, to create five globally competitive automakers.

    China’s government will also target to boost auto exports to 3 million compared to this year’s goal of 860,000.(SD-Agencies)