Cars

GM bullish on China growth

By LI FANGFANG (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-13 09:22

A Buick production line at Shanghai General Motors' factory. GM plans to add more hybrids, plug-ins and electric vehicles in China in the next five years. [China Daily]

Automaker aims to introduce 25 new or updated models over the next 20 months

BEIJING: General Motors (GM), the largest foreign automaker in China, aims to sell more than 3 million cars in 2015 as it adds new models to keep up with demand.

GM, which has maintained China's auto sales champion for five years, said on Monday it expects to sell 2 million vehicles this year in the world's biggest auto market, four years ahead of schedule it made last April.

The automaker sold 1.83 million vehicles in China last year, up 67 percent over 2008.

To meet demand, GM plans to introduce 25 new or updated models in China by the end of 2011.

That figure is nearly double the 14 new models it launched in China over the past two years.

"Anything is possible in China. We are very bullish about future potential here," said Kevin Wale, president of GM China Group.

He is confident, and with good reason.

The carmaker's domestic sales surged 68 percent in March, outstripping US deliveries for a third straight month.

"Five years ago we forecast that auto sales in China will exceed those in the US by 2020, but the prediction came true last year, 10 years early," said Wale.

GM's first quarter sales reached 623,546 units, nearly as many vehicles as the company sold in all of 2005, thanks to government policies that spurred domestic demand, said Wale.

Analysts said GM's targets are reachable as the automaker has strong partnerships with China's two top automakers.

The carmaker sold 230,048 vehicles in China in March, compared with US sales of 188,546.

SAIC-GM-Wuling, with monthly sales of 129,489 units, accounted for more than half of those sales.

Another joint venture partnership Shanghai GM, which makes Buick LaCrosse and Regal sedans locally, sold 86,967 vehicles in March.

While its newly formed light-duty truck joint venture FAW-GM reported sales of 13,200 units last month.

GM plans to add more hybrids, plug-ins and electric vehicles in China in the next five years to raise fuel efficiency, including its Chevrolet Volt plug-in car in 2011.

Hybrids and "start-stop" technology - which halts the engine to save gasoline - will yield additional fuel-economy improvements of between 5 percent and 15 percent, according to GM.

Over the past five years, the average fuel economy of the US automaker's locally produced passenger car lineup has improved 20 percent, and the company plans to further improve fuel efficiency between 2010 and 2015, said Wale.

He refused to provide GM's vehicle fuel economy targets for the next five years simply saying "we have made an internal target".

Statistics from China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show that automobile sales in China rose 76 percent to 3.5 million units during the first quarter, supported by government stimulus measures including tax cuts on smaller cars and subsidies for trading in older vehicles.

However, industry analysts predict slower year-on-year growth of automobile sales this year of between 15 to 20 percent in China.