McDonald's this morning signed a deal with China oil giant Sinopec to jointly develop drive-through restaurants.
The deal, which will also include long-standing Sinopec partner Oriental Creation Management, will use the fuel company's nationwide network of 30,000 service stations to serve China's rapidly growing population of motorists, they said.
"The majority of our new store openings will be drive-through in one or two years," said Jeffrey Schwartz, McDonald's chief executive in China.
McDonald's is aiming for 10 per cent annual sales growth in China over the next five years amid stiff competition from Yum Brands's KFC, aiming to add about 100 restaurants a year to its current stable of about 750 stores.
McDonald's Chinese store numbers still lag far behind the 1,900 that KFC had last year. And KFC has racked up average growth of 20 per cent over the past five years.
China is the world's second-largest car market and one of the fastest growing.