Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

To gain an upper hand in the fiercly competitive automobile market, two Shanghai-based automakers are rushing new models to market which are targeted at the mid-and high-end sector, Eastday.com reported.
Shanghai Volkswagen Automobile Co Ltd, a 50-50 joint-venture between Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation Group and the German Volkswagen AG, announced yesterday the launch of six new models of its Passat sedan, while SAIC's other joint-venture, Shanghai General Motors Corp, has unveiled three models of the new Buick GL806 to consolidate its pole position in China's upscale, multi-purpose vehicle market.
Based on the results of SVW market research, the first batch of new Passats will come in six colors, with inky blue added to the previously available black magic, yellow, diamond silver, urban grey and candy white.
This edition, a Sino-German hybrid design, is SVW's new flagship model, whose prices were not revealed in the Eastday report, however.
Price tags on SGM's new Buick start low from 210,000 yuan (US$15,958) as a way of attracting individual buyers. Despite that, analysts predicted individual business would not stimulate the MPV business overall.  Individuals as a group stand at 10 percent of the total buyers, according to Rao Da, secretary-general of the National Joint-Commitee of the Passenger Car Industry.
Data from the association indicates that China's MPV sales in October dropped 14.1 percent year-on-year, double the rate of decline in the passenger-vehicle market as a whole.