French auto maker Peugeot is likely to sell more cars in China's booming market than in its home market by around 2015, said Timothy Zimmerman, a China-based Peugeot executive.

Mr. Zimmerman said Peugeot, a unit of PSA Peugeot Citroën SA, is targeting to sell about a half million vehicles in China by 2015. If realized, the company's China sales are likely to exceed those in France that year or shortly after that, he said. In France, Peugeot sells about 400,000 cars a year, giving it a roughly 19% share of the country's market, he said.

China is the world's biggest car market by total vehicles sold—as well as the fastest-growing major market—and it is increasingly surpassing home-market sales for individual foreign car makers such as General Motors Co. and Hyundai Motor Co.

Passing France's sales volume in China "isn't a strategic objective for us," Mr. Zimmerman said in an interview over the weekend. It would be a result "we might eventually achieve as our sales in China expand."

Next year, the executive said, Peugeot wants to sell more than 200,000 vehicles in China. That compares with sales this year, likely about 150,000 vehicles, up from the 112,000 in 2009.

Peugeot has increased sales mostly by introducing new models and expanding its dealer network, Mr. Zimmerman said. At the start of this year, Peugeot had 165 stores in China. By year's end, the number of dealers should total around 220, he said.

PSA Peugeot Citroën has a manufacturing and sales joint venture with Chinese auto maker Dongfeng Motor Group Co., and sells mostly locally produced cars. But at the auto show that opened Monday in Guangzhou, a south China industrial hub, Peugeot is expected to show off a new model—the Peugeot 3008.

Mr. Zimmerman said Peugeot plans to start importing the model—a car-SUV crossover that has already been launched in Europe—from France to be sold in China.

Next year, Peugeot also plans to launch two models: a redesigned version of a car that is already manufactured and sold in China, which Mr. Zimmerman declined to identify, as well as a new midsize sedan to compete here with Volkswagen AG's Passat and Honda Motor Co.'s Accord, among others.

That midsize sedan segment has lost growth steam in recent years as Chinese consumers snapped up more small cars, encouraged by government sales incentives and rebates since 2009.

"It's still a good market" because a foreign-designed midsize sedan generates on average sales of about 10,000 vehicles a month, Mr. Zimmerman said.