Brilliance Auto, BMW's partner in China, said on Tuesday it was on schedule to finish covering all of Europe's main markets by the end of this year, cementing the first real entry by a Chinese automaker.
Hans-Ulrich Sachs, CEO of HSO Motors Europe, Brilliance's importer for Europe, said he envisaged annual sales of 200,000 cars a year within 10 years.
Brilliance would draw sales from its target demographic of middle-income families, mainly at the expense of Korean brands such as Hyundai Motor Co .
"In 10 years, I expect we will have a market share of at least 1.5 percent, selling about 200,000 cars a year," Sachs told Reuters in an interview at the Geneva auto show.
Sachs said consumers in the tough European market were more open to new brands than they were about two decades ago, when he helped top Korean carmaker Hyundai launch its little-known brand in Europe.
"The perception towards Chinese cars is higher than it was for Korean cars 17 or 18 years ago," he said, referring to market research that claims 18 percent of European drivers were prepared to buy a Chinese car.
"That means, in an overall market of about 15.5 million vehicles a year, there is demand for 3 million Chinese cars, theoretically."
Unlike many cut-price Chinese carmakers such as Chery Automobile Co and Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd , Hong Kong-listed Brilliance is trying to build higher-end vehicles through partnerships with European engineering and design firms such as Italy's Pininfarina, hoping to craft an image as a premium carmaker.
Brilliance has already announced plans to sell 158,000 sedans in Europe in the next five years, including the BS4 compact saloon exhibited at the Geneva auto show and scheduled to go on sale this summer.
It has import companies serving 17 European countries, including Germany, Switzerland, France and Spain, with 700 non-exclusive dealers.
Brilliance made headlines in Europe last year when it received a rating of just one star out of five in a crash test for its BS6 sedan by Germany's ADAC auto club.
The carmaker said it immediately got to work to improve the car's safety standards, changing about 60 components. Three months later, another crash test showed results that would correspond to three stars under the official test, it said, adding it was aiming for the maximum 5 stars in the medium term.
"We will launch the 3-star models in the next two to three months, and 5-star products in the next five years," Sachs said.
While it aims to cultivate a brand standing for safety, quality and service, Brilliance also wants to price its cars 10 percent cheaper than competing models, Sachs said.
HSO's distribution network does not cover Russia, where Brilliance is looking to establish another local joint venture to cut costs by $4,000 to $5,000 per car against exports from China, Brilliance Auto Vice President Guohua He told Reuters.
Brilliance has said it aims to double its annual revenue to 80 billion yuan by 2010, when it expects to move 500,000 vehicles.