Rumor: General Motors May Vacate Brands in Some Markets, Though Unlikely in the Short Term
As with all reports stemming from ‘unnamed sources’, it would be wise to take this information with large grains of salt. Still, even the specter of this happening is too big not to mention.
Longtime readers of TTAC (thanks, all three of you) will remember the GM Death Watch maintained by this site. If the company does exit some of its brands from markets like China and Korea, a case could be made for rebooting the series. These rumours surfaced overseas from media sites in the respective countries.
The first report talks about GM withdrawing from the Korean market, citing moves made by GM Korea to sell off company-run service centres and some parcels of idle land. We will say that’s a big jump to make in assumption, since companies the size of GM routinely divest parts of business and seek to make a quick buck selling land or buildings it no longer uses. For its part, GM told the reporting outlet it has no plans whatsoever to leave Korea behind, citing its plan to continue importing cars from the peninsula even in the face of Trump’s tariff taxes. Spox also reiterated the company’s strength in Korea along with opportunities yet to be tapped, so we’re not sure this rumor passes the sniff test.
A rumor with slightly more teeth is the one speculating Chevrolet is facing trouble in China. An outlet in that market, citing an article which has since been taken down, alleges all Chevrolet projects which are not yet in production have been put on indefinite hold. The strategic alliance of SAIC-GM is allegedly trying to stem losses by doing so. What cannot be disputed are sinking sales numbers for the brand in that market, slipping from 640,000 units in 2018 to just over 168,000 last year. That’s a drop in market share from an estimated 2.8% to not even a single percentage point. Note the outlet talks about Chevrolet, not GM as a whole.
Again, we’ll watch all this closely and look for more sources before writing off the brands in this manner.
[Image: GM]
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Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.
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GM could get back into Europe and Asia relatively quickly if they acquired Nissan.
The tragedy of the last 50 years was the policy choice we made to allow the owners of our manufacturing might to outsource and destroy American manufacturing might. Greedy and stupid factory owners sacrificed long term investment in plant, equipment and workers to boost quarterly earnings and stock prices. What donwe do now? Well, its too late to rebuild those lost factories. Its time to build for the future. Invest in areas o f possible future growth.... that's not easy to predict. Clearly moderate tariffs are a piece of that, but so is changing how we treat income and investments. The first thing we ought to do is implement tax and fiscal policies that encourage investment in industries.... here.