Honda says June China auto sales up 15.8 pct y/y

SHANGHAI, July 2 (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co Ltd and its two local joint ventures sold 70,739 automobiles in China in June, up 15.8 percent from a year earlier, the Japanese automaker said on Wednesday. That follows a 10.5 percent year-on-year rise in May and a 3.6 percent fall in April. The company's sales in the first six months of the year came to 353,416 vehicles, up 11.7 percent from the same period a year earlier. Honda will double the number of car models it sells in China over the next two years to increase its market share, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported in May. Honda, which operates car ventures in China with Dongfeng Motor Group Co Ltd and Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd , aims to sell 900,000 cars in the country this year, up 18.9 percent from a year earlier. (Reporting by Samuel Shen and Adam Jourdan)