GM Looks To Double Sales In China By 2015

SHANGHAI -- General Motors Co. said Monday it plans to double the number of cars it sells in China to 5 million by 2015.

GM China President Kevin Wale said he's optimistic the company can achieve the "ambitious" target, which is more than twice the 2.35 million vehicles it sold in 2010.

Global automakers are focusing their efforts on China's auto market, which is the world's biggest. Some 13.7 million passenger vehicles were sold in the country last year, when sales grew by a third over 2009.

Automakers and analysts don't expect such strong growth this year because of the end of tax incentives for some vehicle purchases and efforts by cities to bring traffic congestion under control.

Wale said the company expects sales to grow by at least 10 percent annually, thanks to China's strong economic growth and low rate of vehicle ownership. Increased consumer spending and urbanization would also help, he said.

GM plans to roll out 60 new and upgraded models in China in the next five years, almost half of them Chevrolets and Buicks, Wale said.

Earlier Monday, the company unveiled the 630 sedan, the first model from Baojun, its only-in-China brand aimed at new middle class consumers.

GM said Monday that the Chevrolet brand had its best first quarter sales ever. GM sold 1.1 million Chevrolets worldwide in the first quarter, up 15 percent from the same period last year. Chevrolet's China sales, for instance, were up 17 percent to a record 159,303 for the quarter.

GM also said it so far its international factories haven't been hurt much by parts shortages from the Japan earthquake. Tim Lee, president of GM International Operations, said there has been "minimal" impact on production from supply chain disruptions related to the tsunami in Japan last month.

He said a team of more than 200 people are monitoring the situation in Shanghai, Tokyo and Michigan.

Automakers are grappling with shortages of components caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which killed some 25,000 people, disrupted power supplies and forced factories to shut down. Automakers have temporarily idled some production lines or cut back output at factories in Japan, Europe and the U.S.

Comments

[hw]

12:22 PM on 04/19/2011

Why don't we stop pretending GM is US company.
They're a global corporation by their own definition. They rent office space here.

They should just move to China and open up the playing field for new US based auto companies.
I can't believe US taxpayers were forced to bail this company out.

[Mister Grumpy]

02:29 AM on 04/19/2011

Yep........ the Chinese will take everything that GM teaches them and then beat them at their own game......... just watch and see..........

[nixrox04]

10:44 PM on 04/18/2011

Too bad the Chinese taxpayers didn't have to bail GM out and then watch Wall Street make millions on the IPO while they formed a new co. in the US with the bad debt you and I as US taxpayers will eat.

[Janine547]

05:55 PM on 04/18/2011

Remember union folks. when GM makes money in China and the CEO gets exorbitant pay packages its because of the success they have overseas. Not in the United States or Canada. So don't go crying about your pay when the success of the company has nothing to do with you but rather Global International Operations.

[frank day]

07:07 PM on 04/18/2011

WTF?

I hope you're joking.

[Keyop]

04:58 PM on 04/18/2011

GM=Get Mechanic

[sunbeltvoter]

04:29 PM on 04/18/2011

Riding around Shanghai not long ago I was stunned to see every fourth car or so had a "GM Shanghai" nameplate on the rear sheet metal. I saw more Buicks in China than I have ever seen in the US.

Disclaimer: I live in Ford F150 pick-em-up country, where Buicks are only driven by old retired Yankees, or college students who got Mom's old hand me down car. So not much opportunity for Buick sightings.

[OldTulsan]

07:37 PM on 04/18/2011

About 80 years ago, the Chinese emperor bought a Buick...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/automobiles/01DESIGN.html
Design - Buick LaCrosse - How New Buicks Took Shape in China - NYTimes.com

"THE idea of creating a new Buick in a design studio in China, as General Motors has done with the 2010 LaCrosse, is not as loopy as it might sound. Buicks have a certain cachet in China, dating back some eight decades to when the emperor bought one.

But today’s commercial imperative is more compelling than nostalgia: sales of Buicks in China first outpaced sales in the United States in 2006, and the margin is considerable today. For the first nine months of 2009, for instance, Buick sold 312,798 vehicles in China; in the United States, it sold 72,389.

In 1997 General Motors established two joint ventures with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation in China. One was for manufacturing. The other venture, for design and engineering, is the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center. The center has done the engineering to adapt various G.M. global models for the Chinese market..."

[DAE]

07:59 PM on 04/26/2011

According to some comments here at HuffPost all Chinese are slaves. From your comment it seems that millions of Chinese are actually now emperors!

[alfrede]

04:12 PM on 04/18/2011

Perhaps GM will move their corporate heaquarters from Detroit to Peking.

Then Toyota or Honda can move their's to Detroit.

[Mister Grumpy]

02:26 AM on 04/19/2011

Detroit has plenty of vacant office space available....... nothing that a little paint, spackle and new glass won't fix...........

[Roy Merritt old car guy]

02:49 PM on 04/18/2011

China will do to GM what it did to McDonald Douglas, take all their research and knowledge and then break them. China will not let anyone in nor take anything but raw goods on shore. China is anything but a good trading partner for America. We get hosed everytime we deal with China and then we are hosed another time buy the poisoness goods they ship to us.

[frank day]

07:08 PM on 04/18/2011

yep

[DAE]

08:19 PM on 04/26/2011

Nope. China has a trade deficit with Germany importing German machine tools and other high value manufactured goods. There are many successful joint ventures and China is adopting patent and licensing laws and regulations modeled on world standards. They are also implementing more stringent intellectual property laws. You can believe it or not. That's irrelevant, because it is happening. And for one good reason. If they don't continue reforming and enforcing these rules of law business will suffer. The reason why the US doesn't do as well in China as Germany and other exporting countries is that most US companies just want to exploit China's competitive advantages (relatively low wages and lax inforcement of labor and environmental regs) to make a quick profit. As the Chinese economy continues to grow and mature those days are numbered. China will continue exporting to emerging markets in the developing world economies where there is virtually unlimited growth potential and will begin to better develop its own burgeoning domestic market. There is immense pent up demand in China. In due course as the American economy continues to recede because of unmitigated greed and the destruction of middle class demand China will just laugh, direct its exports elsewhere and call in its debt. So your simplistic "yep" just illustrates your profound ignorance of what's going on. It's not China that's causing our problems. We dug our own hole now we got to figure how to climb out of it. Good luck, we'll need it.

[OldTulsan]

07:39 PM on 04/18/2011

Here's the suppliers to the Comac C919 jetliner...

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/11/05/349329/china-special-c919-update.html
CHINA SPECIAL: C919 update

"...CFM Internatio­nal Providing the Leap-X1C engine that will power the aircraft. Has signed agreement with AVIC's Commercial Aircraft Engine to study the feasibilit­y of an assembly line and engine test facility in China.

GE Aviation Supplying the core processing system, cockpit display systems, on-board maintenanc­e systems and flight recorders with partner AVIC Systems.

Rockwell Collins Supplying the communicat­ion, navigation and surveillan­ce systems on the C919, as well as the in-flight entertainm­ent system and cabin core system. It is doing the work with Chinese partners China Electronic­s Technology Avionics (part of state-owne­d China Electronic­s Technology group), AVIC's China Leihua Electronic Technology Research Institute and AVIC's Shanghai Aero Measuremen­t-Controll­ing Research Institute.

Honeywell Providing fly-by-wir­e flight control system, inertial reference and air data systems, auxiliary power unit, wheels and brakes. It is partnering China's Flight Automatic Control Research Institute, Hunan Boyun New Materials and Changsha Xinhang Wheel and Brake.

Parker Aerospace Supplying the aircraft's hydraulics system, flight control actuation and fuel tank systems in partnershi­p with AVIC Systems.

Liebherr-A­erospace Providing the landing gear and air management systems through partnershi­ps with AVIC's landing gear manufactur­ing subsidiary in Changsha and Nanjing Engineerin­g Institute of Aircraft Systems.

Eaton Supplying the fuel and hydraulic conveyance systems, cockpit panel assemblies and dimming control system..."

[frank day]

02:43 PM on 04/18/2011

My prediction.

China will let GM contribute capital and IP and then find ways to appropriate GM's
investments.

China is hot, but it's fools gold.

[allperils]

02:45 PM on 04/18/2011

I've heard your "predictions" before. For about 25 years.

None of "those predictions" ever materialized.

[frank day]

02:48 PM on 04/18/2011

Wrong. If you're in China you can GOOGLE it.

Oh wait. No you can't.

[Heather Hackett]

11:30 AM on 04/18/2011

I am so glad I purchased GM stock when it went public again (11/10).........Baseball, hotdogs and Chevy's! Don't you just love the USA!

[allperils]

02:45 PM on 04/18/2011

No, I hate the ASU

[planetjeffy]

11:35 PM on 04/18/2011

why are you happy
gm stock is worth less now

[Natems86]

10:38 AM on 04/18/2011

General Electric has made $26 billion in profits in the United Stated over the past five years. It's also receive a $4.1 billion tax refund from the IRS. GE has cut a fifth of its American jobs in the pas nine years, and its boosting jobs overseas-where tax rates are lower. And where it can continue evading U.S. taxes.

Double sales in China you say? OMG the prophecies were true!

[Heather Hackett]

11:28 AM on 04/18/2011

This article was on GM.............the info on GE was like so last week!

[Natems86]

11:35 AM on 04/18/2011

Oops my bad!