DaimlerChrysler AG, the first overseas company to make vehicles in China, expects industry wide demand for luxury cars in the world's third-largest auto market to more than double in the next three years.

Annual sales of luxury cars in China will rise to 400,000 vehicles in the next three years from the current 150,000.

DaimlerChrysler and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG are raising production in China, where rising incomes are boosting sales. The number of mainland citizens with a personal wealth of more than US$1 million rose 6.8 percent to 320,000 last year.