General Motors Corp, banking on emerging markets to counter falling sales in the United States, posted its slowest growth in China in at least five years as Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co lured customers with newer models.

The auto maker's China sales rose 19 percent in 2007 to 1.03 million vehicles, it said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Volkswagen's sales in the country grew 28 percent, Beijing-based spokesman Kai Grueber said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg News yesterday.

GM's expansion in the world's second-largest auto market slowed as customers opted for Volkswagen's Skoda Octavia and the Ford Focus over the Buick Excelle. The auto maker, battling with Toyota Motor Corp to extend its reign as the world's largest car maker, expects to sell 75 percent of its vehicles outside of the US within a decade, Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said earlier this month.

"GM's growth last year wasn't as outstanding as in previous years due to a lack of competitive new medium-sized models," said Matthew Kong, associate director of Fitch Ratings in Beijing. "The company is not only facing challenges from its long-time rival Volkswagen, but also from Toyota and Ford, which are catching up quickly with appealing products."

Volkswagen, the second-largest overseas auto maker in China behind GM, sold 910,491 vehicles, Grueber said, adding that its market share rose to 18 percent from 17 percent. The auto maker introduced at least six new models last year, including the Octavia and the Magotan.

Volkswagen, based in Wolfsburg, Germany, expects to boost China sales as much as 20 percent this year to at least one million vehicles, Grueber said. George Yang, GM's Shanghai-based spokesman declined to provide the company's 2008 China sales forecast in a phone interview.

"Volkswagen and Ford had very good timing in bringing attractive medium-sized sedans to China, as rising affluence is boosting sales of bigger sized cars," said Fitch's Kong. "Brand loyalty is a new thing in China, and whoever has the right product wins."

Sales of Toyota and Lexus-brand vehicles in China surged 62 percent to 500,000 last year on the popularity of Camry and Corolla sedans, the Toyota City, Japan-based auto maker said yesterday.

Ford boosted its vehicle sales in the country 30 percent last year to 216,324 on demand for Focus cars.