Last June, China’s overall vehicle sales had soared 36.5 percent from a year earlier to 1.14m units. The “passenger vehicle” segment rose 48.4 percent in June from a year earlier to a record 872,900 units. In July, these numbers will most likely be surpassed. While the rest of the world is in tears, China is on a tear. The indicator: GM.
Contrary to back home, GM China is very much alive. Their Daewoo Lacetti-based Buick Excelle if flying off dealers’ lots. China is probably the sole reason for Buick still being around. June sales by model here.
Be prepared to be perplexed: GM China expects an increase of more than 70 percent compared to July 2008, Gasgoo reports. As one of the largest Chinese automakers, GM is a solid indicator for the Chinese market. GM’s China sales in June had climbed 61.6 percent. Volkswagen, number one passenger car maker in China, sold more cars in China in the first half of 2009 than in its home market Germany. All of this taken into account, the Chinese passenger vehicle segment should shatter the 50 percent growth barrier in July.
If GM China is doing so well, why are we bailing out U.S. GM?
One more useless last thought: U.S. money for Cash for Clunkers is sending crushed Buick LeSabres back to China to be recycled into Excelles.
Don’t get me started…
Too late.
(FWIW: http://www.buick.com.cn/index.aspx )
At least the thing looks better inside than the Optra we get. Outside… ummm only in the back.
But… 25K units? damn, they trully like it. It’s about the sales of 1 year here. In 1 month.
and the Cruze… is it a Chevy? why they didn’t replace the Excelle with it?.
Stingray:
Yes, the Cruze is a Chinese Chevy:
http://www.chevrolet.com.cn/brandsite/en/cruze/
@ BS
What does Buick Excelle sell for US$ in China?
interesting to see Enclave sales at nearly 800 per month. I believe it is the only model actually fully exported from the US. Other American market models (CTS, SLS) sold in China are CKD kits, thus avoiding a heavy import tariff. But the Enclaves in China are shipped right out of Lansing, MI; and that means in China, after tariffs, they cost nearly $100k a piece. And people are still buying them.
If GM China is doing so well, why are we bailing out U.S. GM?
In the absence of an answer from Bertel, and seeing as it seems impossible to find the selling price for the Excelle, I’m going to guess that the retained profit in absolute dollar terms is pretty low.
In other words, sell 100,000 units at $1 in China, or 10,000 units for $10 and you end up with the same headline figure for sales.
iPods cost about $20 in Taipei and I’m sure they sell buckloads, but that isn’t going to return much profit to Apple.
The Buick Excelle sells for $15,192-plus in China. GM’s profit in this market can be as high as you can imagine.
The Buick Excelle sells for $15,192-plus in China.
That’s pretty interesting. A friend in Wuhan bought one to share for ~$9k as a group of four families.
GM’s profit in this market can be as high as you can imagine.
Makes it hard to understand how in 2008 they had revenues of $5.3b but profits of $280m then…..
That’s also a far way off NA revenues of over ~$100b.
This suggests to me that it’s easy to sell tens of thousands of low priced cars which result in a low absolute profit.
In and of itself, GM China maybe profitable, but near-zero ability to help the NA haemorrhaging.
That’s pretty interesting. A friend in Wuhan bought one to share for ~$9k as a group of four families.
Cars in china, like pretty much everywhere in the world, are more expensive than in the US.
The only really cheap cars there are the unsafe local clones or really old foreign designs made from reused machinery.
Prices on anything imported are obscene, tho somewhat less obscene nowadays than they used to be.