"Establish a new high-end imported car business and accelerate the launch of more electric vehicle products."
Recently, Julian Blissett, global executive vice president of GM and president of GM China, introduced the focus of business in China in 2022 to Phoenix.com.
From these two aspects, GM's product structure in China will usher in a huge change. For The Upcoming Two-Year-Old Bai Calendar, he will also usher in a key mid-term examination.
Restarting the import car business, is it intended to be Peigong?
Since the second CIIE, global models such as the Chevrolet Corvette have become the absolute core of GM's China booth, and GM China has more than once expressed its willingness to turn "exhibits" into "commodities". Last year, Bai Li publicly stated that it was actively preparing for the establishment of a high-end import business and had entered a substantive preparatory stage.
Now, the boots are finally on the ground.
"GM China will build a new high-end imported car business this year and is currently actively assembling a team. The business, like a start-up incubated within GM, enjoys a high degree of autonomy and is a completely independent business unit. Bai Li told Phoenix.com Cars.
As early as January 2015, with the official withdrawal of Opel from the Chinese market, GM's import car business in China was gradually closed, and only a few models such as Careyd could be purchased through parallel imports. So, why did GM China restart its import car business?
Bai Li believes that although these products to be imported belong to a relatively niche market, they represent a diversified lifestyle, "In recent years, Chinese consumers have shown a very strong interest in pursuing different lifestyles, which can be seen from the feedback at the Expo." ”
"Although the imported car business will not bring a lot of sales, it has a strong attraction for a certain group", Bai Li pointed out, GM China's high-end import business is focusing on this part of the niche market segment, the purpose is to meet the growing diversified lifestyle needs of consumers.
Regarding the introduction plan of imported models, Bo Li did not disclose much. However, we can see some clues from GM China's lineup at the Expo in the past few years, such as the Chevrolet Corvette sports car, the Silverado full-size pickup, and the GMC pure electric Hummer.
In fact, in addition to the reasons mentioned by Bai Li, it is not difficult for us to see that GM China's restart of imported car business is also a measure to alleviate market pressure from the periphery.
In recent years, GM's sales in China have been declining, and there are reasons why the Chinese market has changed from incremental competition to stock competition, and there are also reasons why GM itself is in a period of transformation and adjustment. At this time, the introduction of imported cars, although it will not have an immediate effect on sales, but it will have a very positive effect on the promotion of brand image.
Bai Li also admitted that the high-end import business and saic-GM's existing business will effectively complement each other, the two will develop together and support each other, and some of the import business will be carried out in collaboration with SAIC-GM.
However, there is a saying that hopes to enhance the brand image and reputation with the help of import business, and other car companies have also tried, such as Hyundai Motor, which restarted the import car business in 2020, hoping to drive the overall market performance of the brand, but at present, the results are minimal.
However, GM has two major advantages, on the one hand, it has many fans similar to the AMCC China American Muscle Car Club in China, which is obviously welcome to restart the import car business. In other words, imported cars have a great role in maintaining old users and fan users.
On the other hand, whether it is a Corvette sports car, a full-size pickup truck like Silverado, or even a GMC pure electric Hummer that attracts global attention, there is almost no product of the same type in the market, and its uniqueness is unquestionable, which is also very attractive to many new users.
Therefore, GM China's restart of imported car business is still very worth looking forward to. Of course, under the extensive and profound change of "double carbon", the introduction of large-displacement vehicles at this time is somewhat contrary. Therefore, the future import car business will most likely be promoted in the form of electrification.
Electrification strategy success or failure
Buick/Chevrolet is the key
In June 2021, GM announced that it will increase its investment in electric vehicles and autonomous driving, increasing its planned investment from $27 billion to $35 billion between 2020 and 2025, and launching 30 pure electric models worldwide by the end of 2025, achieving annual sales of more than 1 million electric vehicles worldwide.
Since the Ultium platform was first shown to the outside world in March 2020, GM has pressed the acceleration button of transformation, and has since emphasized more than once that the Ultium platform is the cornerstone of the company's full electrification and can change the perception of GM.
After succeeding Qian Huikang in June of the same year, Bai Li also repeatedly said that he would increase investment in the Chinese market and accelerate the landing of new technologies, and he was referring to the Ultium platform. In September 2021, GM officially launched the Ultium electric vehicle platform to the Chinese market and gave it a new Chinese name: Aoteneng.
According to Bai Li, GM's electric vehicle strategy in China is a "two-pronged approach", namely the Aoteneng platform and the GSEV platform developed locally by SAIC-GM-Wuling. Complementing each other, the two platforms will drive electrification across all GM brands in China, covering all market segments and price ranges.
In 2021, the cumulative sales volume of Wuling brand GSEV products reached 452,238 units, an increase of 160% year-on-year. Among them, Hongguang MINIEV sold a total of 426,452 vehicles throughout the year, winning the annual sales title of new energy. It can be said that the products of the GSEV platform have gained a firm foothold in the market, and the next pressure has come to the side of the Aoteneng platform.
Since landing in North America and China last year, GM has built a number of products based on the Aoteneng platform, covering GMC pure electric Hummer, Chevrolet Silverado pickup, BrightDrop EV600 pure electric logistics vehicle, Cruise Origin self-driving shared car, and Cadillac LYRIQ.
In November 2021, Cadillac LYRIQ officially opened pre-sale. The car is the first model of SAIC-GM to introduce the Aoteneng electric vehicle platform, and it is also the pioneering work of Cadillac's intelligent pure electric transformation. In order to coincide with the rapid listing of LYRIQ, the first Aoteneng Gigafactory was put into operation in Jinqiao, Shanghai in October last year.
"We expect to deliver Cadillac LYRIQ to the Chinese market in the third quarter of this year," Perry said. Since then, Buick and Chevrolet will also launch Aoteneng models. By 2025, GM is expected to have 1 million electric vehicle production capacity in China. ”
In August 2020, GM announced its future development strategy tailored to the Chinese market. In the field of electrification, more than 40% of the new models launched by GM in the next five years will be new energy models. These new energy models will be produced in China, and almost all parts will be locally sourced.
According to the forecast of the China Automobile Association, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in mainland China will reach 5 million units in 2022, an increase of 47% year-on-year. At present, in the case of the traditional fuel vehicle market is difficult to find a growth point, most car companies have focused on the new energy market.
However, the data released by the China Automobile Association shows that the current penetration rate of joint venture brand new energy vehicles is only about 3%, which is far lower than that of independent brands and luxury brands. Fortunately, with the gradual transition of the new energy market from dumbbell type to spindle shape, the joint venture brand is also considered to be about to usher in the best time to counterattack.
So for GM, the most difficult thing is not whether cadillac LYRIQ can fire the first shot, but whether the Buick and Chevrolet Aotene models behind can quickly follow up and gain market recognition.
At a smaller level, this determines whether the Aoteneng platform can be successful; at a larger level, it also determines whether GM's transformation plan can be successful.