Auto Motor und Sport has some stunning news out of Europe, where the Chevrolet brand is *gasp* kicking ass. That's right folks, GM has sold 318k fewer vehicles on the year in America, but in Europe the General's sales are actually up by 375k units on the year. And no, those numbers are not coming from the newly "upmarket" Opel (-1.7 percent), or established SAAB (-13 percent) brands either. Rebadged Daewoos sold as Chevrolets are what's been (sort of) saving GM's bacon on the continent that invented the car, up a staggering 23.7 percent on the year. Most of those sales come from Eastern Europe and Russia, where people realize that the American brand's connotations of obesity, pollution and warmongering were properly earned in the Cold War. And speaking of brand connotations, Chevrolet isn't even the fastest-growing GM brand in Europe. Sales of the real "America's Brand" HUMMER are up a staggering 29 percent on the year so far. Of course, that's a not-so staggering total of 1,325 HUMMERs sold. But still, who'd have thunk it? In summary, the former Evil Empire is crazy for Chevrolets, Europe still loves it some HUMMER and we're tracking a cold front moving through Hell this weekend. Details at Eleven.
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What a great story! Good for mother Russia. Well they are allowed to drill for their own oil there. ;)
So – from this we can conclude that GMNA would be sitting pretty if:
1. They only sold cars made in the Eurozone or Korea.
2. They disposed of all NA design and manufacturing facilities.
3. They consolidated all dealers into “GM” dealers and the former brands (Cadillac, Chevrolet, etc.) become individual models.
If they survive, this might just be really close to the truth.
No, they are not crazy for Chevrolets. They are crazy for cheap korean imports costing less than the Golfs and Focuses. Imagine what that means to brand recognition and core values?
This is akin to their growth in China. It’s a good thing in that it’s broad-based, bread-and-butter growth, but it must be sustainable and/or reasonably profitable.
Eventually, all markets mature. GM has to prepare for that, and not just gorge at the trough.
@psarhijinian:
LOL. What makes you think they can do that?
Yeah, of course, year-on-year sales are AWESOME! Chevy as a brand has only existed in Western Europe (I can’t speak for the East) for a few years as an established automaker.
0+245K = A LOT!
I wonder how much Daewoo sales in western europe tanked? Anyone got any figures?
Sales of the real “America’s Brand” HUMMER are up a staggering 29 percent on the year so far. Of course, that’s a not-so staggering total of 1,325 HUMMERs sold.
Remember, you (they) put money in the bank, not percentages. The reverse calculation shows that the increase to 1325 came from a previous sales total of about 1025 cars, or 300 more.
Those 1325 sales represent roughly a 0.00094% [ninety four one-hundred-thousandths]market penetration based on the EU’s 2007’s annual numbers.
Sliced yet another way, the 1325 sales represent 49 cars in each of EU’s 27 member countries. Not a lot by any standard.
/JT
Chevrolet as a marque replaced Daewoo in most of Western Europe and the UK, and in a couple of markets, locally manufactured Daewoo products made by local companies (such as RoDae in Romania and UzDae in Uzbekistan) were still allowed to manufacture the cars they’d tooled up for but the designs are now static and getting stale, while GM set-up Chevrolet dealerships in most of these countries selling later variants and sharpish prices.
In other words, business as usual for GM.
The high irony is that now that the world is figuring out that one of the cheapest places to build cars is Romania, and that RoDae wants to sell out, last I heard Ford was looking to buy up the factory. Don’t know if a deal went through, or if the deal is dead. Of course, Ford would have to actually have some money to spend, and that could be the problem.
The old Daewoo Matiz 3 cylinder 800cc cars are manufactured both in Uzbekistan and in Romania, as are the (1980’s Opel based 1980’s “Pontiac LeMans”) Daewoo. Can’t think of the model name.
I think that the Matiz is also built in Ukraine (ZAZ) and Poland (FSO, owned by ZAZ), and also the Lanos which was discontinued elsewhere in about 2003.
GM practically “stole” most of Daewoo’s South Korean and Vietnamese operations for a song and tap-dance about 5 years ago, and bought the rest of the South Korean operations 3 years ago, in partnership with SAIC (China) and with Suzuki as a small share-holder.
Suzuki have been selling some of the GMDaewoo cars under the Suzuki brand in North America but I heard this was going to stop soon.
This (well, except for the hummer) doesn’t surprise me at all. The Euro Chevy Lacetti (sold here as a Suzuki Forenza) – while far from the refinement of a BMW 3 series – is a decent, inexpensive, and highly reliable car. How do I know? I have one – it’s the car I drive 100 miles a day to and from work in – not the kind of high-mileage I would want to put on a $30,000 + car. It now has 72,000 100% trouble-free miles in less than 3 years, and still looks showroom fresh (there is zero fit and finish wear). And as far as depreciation – this is a car I will use for commuting until it drops dead, which – based on current wear – will probably be around for at least another 72,000 miles, so who cares about depreciation! It’s as reliable as my refridgerator, and to be honest, just about as attractive, but the 8 speaker sound system on such a cheap car ROCKS! And that’s what a lot of “car people” simply do not get – Some cars are bought for the sole intended purpose of getting from point A to point B as cheaply and as comfortably as possible.
This just suggests we view GM and Ford in their totality instead of just focusing on their NA woes.
Romanian automakers?
Bad news!
What?
The Dacia Sandero! It’s been delayed!
Oh no!
Sorry, couldn’t help it …
Here be your global economy and weak dollars tilting the playing field.
According to this article from Businessweek Russia has overtaken Germany as Europe’s largest car market: http://tinyurl.com/6p47eq
23% Growth from Daewoo/Chevy is impressive but Russia is booming (41% Growth) and I wonder is GM even maintaining market share there? Also this growth is coming at the lowest end of the market. I bet BMW and Benz are cleaning up in Russia but GM just isn’t competing at that end of the market.
Maybe they can send some Buicks from China?