General Motors is plotting to create a new premium brand for the Chinese market comprised primarily of halo cars shipped in from the United States. Details are scant at the moment, primarily due to GM getting caught with its pants down on the news breaking. The automaker doesn’t appear to have reached the point where it feels comfortable sharing. But Chinese media has been sharing the story for several days, forcing the company to issue an official statement confirming that it’s true.
President of GM China Julian Blissett has likewise stated that this will be a subsidiary wholly owned by the company, bucking the joint-partnership trend that was mandatory for any foreign automaker hoping to sell at meaningful volumes. Though it was already becoming unpopular, Western industries often accused it of being an easy way for the Chinese government to steal intellectual properties before squeezing them out.
Reuters reported Blissett as saying the new company will possess a high level of autonomy and focus on importing premium or high-performance halo cars from GM’s other brands. However, the language being used for the Chinese market seems to downplay that it’ll lack the usual tie-ins with local business entities.
“We are inviting talent from across the industry to join us and jointly create our brand-new business in China,” read the statement.
From Reuters:
The U.S. automaker issued the statement after multiple Chinese media outlets reported this week about the new wholly owned brand.
According to a Shanghai-based GM spokesperson, Blissett told Chinese media outlets on Friday the new premium brand will specialize in selling upscale GM vehicles currently unavailable in China through its existing brands. Those brands include Wuling, Baojun, Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac, all of which are owned and operated with Chinese joint-venture partners.
While the models going into the new brand’s lineup have yet to be announced, we can make some presumptions based on which halo cars haven’t yet made their way to China. I would hazard a guess that this new business will include the Cadillac Escalade (pictured above) rather prominently. GM previously teased the SUV during the 2020 China International Import Expo, and a few times before that, drumming up all kinds of interest while suggesting it could sell the model in Asia. But it changed its mind in favor of localizing other models offering better volumes. Since this is going to be an import-only brand focused on expensive products yielding lower volumes, I’m expecting the Escalade to feature prominently. Meanwhile, the automaker has said all questions will be answered at a later date, though no specific timeline was given.
[Image: plavi011/Shutterstock]
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Good.
Ahh…General Mismanagement up to their usual shenanigans…
Oh, and vaccine mandates, face masks, Trudeau, Biden…
LOLOL, Skippity! You beat me to it. I really wanted to get in here early and seed the conversation with a bunch of irrelevant raw political meat to start the daily article cage match between the contestants with all their truly heartfelt and closely held beliefs that have absolutely nothing to do with the subject at hand. You win, my friend. LOLOL!
That picture is gold.
Yes it was also an added bonus for the guy in the picture.
The guy’s wife is just off to the side of the photo. As she shoots him daggers with “the look,” he suddenly blurts out that “I’m looking for the window sticker!” She doesn’t buy it. A split second later, she’s on the phone with her sister complaining on how he’s such a pig and that she’s finally going to leave him because all he does is look at other women. There was that incident at a Beijing Hooters that is still discussed to this very day. As she storms off, he pries his eyes away from the model next to said car and runs after her promising that he was looking for a price because he wanted to get one for her. She doesn’t buy it. She makes it home first while he’s trying to navigate Beijing’s large mass transit network to get home. When he does, he finds the locks have been changed and that two suitcases are outside with an “I never want to see you again” note taped to one. He ends up going to a friend’s house and as they sit around drinking a rather strong Chinese beer, he laments at what just happened all because he wanted to surprise his wife with a new car.
@theflyersfan–The makings of a great story. Need to write a column for TTAC and take us away from fuel price spikes, chip shortages and how bad our country is run. Please give us some more needed entertainment.
@Jeff S – thank you! I took one look at that older gentleman there and I saw a mix of William H. Macy in Fargo and Kevin Spacey in American Beauty and sometimes it writes itself. The look on his face is one of conflict. Does he want the car? Ask the model out? Desire the cold embrace of death? We are all that man at one time or another.
He is thinking something like “She is cute, but she could easily be my granddaughter, so I don’t have a chance. Hmm, that dress does make the most of not much. Maybe if I pretend to be very rich… but I’m wearing a vest, so that’s not going to work…”
So, China is such an important market that none of the usual GM brands will work, they have to come up with a special brand to sell the Escalade, Corvette, and maybe a Blackwing something ?
Someone got paid for this brainstorm ? Hell, you could have just ripped off Autoextremist’s ongoing advice to come up with a brand called “Corvette” and sell it under that halo.
They could even have spent no money and call it “The GM Store”. You’re welcome, deliver the C8 in Hunter Green with a Z51 package and the nicer interior, thanks.
The Chinese buying public will not be fooled. Most of the components are made in China, anyway.
This attempt is also subject to the fallout from the invasion of the Ukraine. Who knows what sort of complications to international relations will result from that ill-advised move?
…. oh boy the Toyota Pop-Up Video is back. As far as GM’s premium brand, Chinese knock down kits containerized sent to USA to be snapped together and then sent back to China. Caddy Daddy is not impressed.
Hecho en China
Grab your helmet, Geo. Here’s your chance to get back in the game!!!
The next Cadillac will be a gussied up Chevy Spark.
Caddy already has a gussied up Equinox, so why not?
Grab your helmet, Geo. Here’s your chance to get back in the game!!!
Grab your helmet, Geo. Here’s your chance to get back in the game!!!
This is why GM was bailed out.
They were bailed out so they could make money again, and do all that job-creation stuff.
FreedMike-
Do you have anything to add other than 14 year old news……
Talk to Greg – he’s the one who brought up the GM bailout.
Where is Dead weight when we need his GM Commentary the most? This post deserves a Dead Weight comment.
The question is this: is the new brand coming with length?
So… evidently Cadillac is trash in PRC, and we have to import rebadged Cadillacs as something something something Not Cadillac?
How about Cadillacs rebadged as Buicks. GM has some experience in rebadging.
I thought this is what Buick was for.
oon gah do hahhhhh indeed, if anyone remembers the jerky boys
I’m guessing Corvette and Hummer EV?
Tagline: “Not Your Most Honorable Ancestor’s Oldsmobile.”
You’re welcome, GM.
That oughta make the loyal Corvette owners still waiting for their C8 to be delivered happy… your Torch Red C8 was diverted to China in the name of market expansion. Otherwise, send China all the crap GM builds, too bad they didn’t want cars back in GM’s glory days of Chevy Celebrity’s, Buick Centurys and Olds Ciera’s. That would have cured their lust for American cars for ever.
Add the Vega to that list that would cure anyone from buying a GM.
Oooooooo, a fancy Geo. I suspect it will be just as successful. The fall of GM is just painful to watch.
I vote for Saturn, Or Pontiac. Or Oldsmobile. Or all three revival.
Saturn ultimately failed, so maybe try Jupiter? Or Neptune?
GM has Premium Brands?
Who are they buying them from?
GMC?
If I were Xi Jinping, I would consider GM’s announcement as a declaration of war.
Comment of the day!
We all can foresee GM losing that incursion even before it starts. Odds of success: maybe one in a thousand, or one in ten thousand? GM keeps making errors in the field, and swinging hard and striking out – but somehow, incredibly, they are still in the game.