GM Sells Chinese Cars All Over the Globe

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

GM China’s sales are on a tear because of small mini buses made by SAIC-GM-Wuling. The venture, in which GM owns 34 percent, sold 87,925 of the small, rugged utes in July alone, up 90.7 percent from a year earlier. They are mostly being snapped up by farmers, helped by Beijing’s stimulus initiatives. Now, GM injects additional steroids: Exports of the Made in China vehicles.


The Wuling N200 series and N300 series vehicles will be shipped under the Chevrolet brand to emerging markets in South America, the Middle East and North Africa. They will be sold through GM’s distribution networks, Reuters reports.

GM is desperately trying to up their 34 percent share of SAIC-GM-Wuling.

Chinese media report that GM had secured an initial deal to take over Liuzhou Wuling Auto’s 15.9 percent stake for roughly 300 million yuan ($43.90 million). GM’s spokeswoman in China said she knew of no no agreement.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Stingray Stingray on Aug 13, 2009

    *sigh* We already get them as Wulings... now also as Chevys?... First Daewoos, now this. Well...

  • Tced2 Tced2 on Aug 13, 2009

    Chinese cars haven't been exactly admired (by car safety folks) for fine engineering. I think Chinese cars can't be imported to the US because they will not pass (crash) safety tests. I suspect they are not exactly welcome in Europe either (for the same reasons).

  • Alessio215 Alessio215 on Aug 13, 2009

    What about the american workers, they will be unemployed. Yes maybe good for american economy for a short time.Only for the businessman Not for the worker , he gets nothing Later you get the hurt

  • Johnthacker Johnthacker on Aug 13, 2009
    Using the profits from China which are in Yuan which are not freely convertable to US $ and have to be used for something in China (parts, acquisitions, etc). And GM China is incredibly profitable. Yes, the problem is that the US both has unusually high corporate tax by world standards, and is one of the few countries that taxes its corporations for business abroad (if the tax paid there is lower than US rate). You don't pay the tax until you bring the money home, so they have a strong incentive to keep the money out of the USA. The President has proposed (cosponsored when in the Senate the "Patriot Corporation of America Act") taxing the profits as soon as they're earned. The problem with that solution is that it would just force GM to sell off its profitable foreign divisions or just move the headquarters outside the US.
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