FRANKFURT, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The ailing Chrysler arm of car maker DaimlerChrysler aims to increase its sales in Germany by 75 percent over the next few years, a company executive was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
Chrysler, which is battling to return to long-term profit and makes most of its sales in the United States, was aiming for a market share in Germany of one percent by 2006 or 2007 at the latest, a DaimlerChrysler executive responsible for German marketing, Eckhard Panka, told the Financial Times Deutschland.
In a market expected to see 3.5 million new car registrations, that would mean unit sales of 35,000 Chrysler and Jeep vehicles in Germany, the newspaper said.
"This year we will reach 20,000 Chryslers and Jeeps," Panka was quoted as saying.
Chrysler, suffering along with rivals from a profit-eroding U.S. price war, returned to the black in the third quarter after a loss of 948 million euros ($1.12 billion) in the second. It is striving for a small operating profit this year as a whole.