A parking lot is seen along the Huangpu River near the financial district of Pudong in Shanghai, in this file picture taken December 12, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

SAIC Motor Corp Ltd, China’s largest automaker by sales, said on Friday that its total sales increased 12 percent from a year earlier to 4.49 million units in 2012.

Shanghai GM, its joint venture with US automaker General Motors, saw sales of 1.39 million units in 2012, up 13.08 percent from 2011. Shanghai Volkswagen, another joint venture with German automaker Volkswagen AG, also posted a year-on-year sales increase of 9.79 percent, with deliveries of 1.28 million units.

Its Shanghai-GM-Wuling venture maintained its leadership in the segment with sales of 1.46 million units, representing an annual growth of 12.07 percent over previous year.

Sales of SAIC Motor’s homegrown brands Roewe and MG surged 23.46 percent year on year to 200,000 units in 2012, the company said.