Since the first CIIE in 2018, GM has never been absent from any CIIE. If GM at the beginning only demonstrated the technical concepts of new energy, automatic driving and other technologies to achieve future visions at the Expo, then from the second Expo, GM began to change its thinking and choose products that will represent pure American car life. Supercars, pickups, full-size SUVs, with these original American models, GM is also constantly testing the acceptance of the Chinese market.
However, in recent years, under the background of the switching of emission standards of China V and Six, the changing sino-US trade situation, and the impact of the global epidemic, GM is extremely cautious about the promotion of imported car business.
Until 2022, GM finally officially announced that it will establish a high-end import car business through a wholly-owned independent company.
This is not the first time that GM has been involved in the import car business in China, but this business was previously handled by SAIC-GM, a joint venture company in China, which includes niche brand models such as Saab and Opel in addition to imported cars of the three brands that have been localized, such as Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac. However, it is obvious that the continuous deepening of SAIC-GM's localization system, the living space of imported cars that focus on mainstream household use is getting narrower and narrower, whether it is the limited subjective investment in resources or the lack of objective product competitiveness, GM's import car business has gradually been marginalized until it completely disappears.
So why is GM restarting its import car business at this time? What are the complementarities and synergies with SAIC-GM's existing business?
What is the market structure of domestic imported cars?
Only by understanding the pattern of the domestic imported car market can we understand the motivation of GM to restart the import car business.
Throughout 2021, imported vehicle sales fell 6.1% year-on-year, with an average monthly sales of about 78,000 units. The proportion of imported cars in terminal sales in the domestic passenger car market has been in decline from 5.04% in 2020 to 4.45% in 2021 to 3.82% in the first two months of 2022.
However, from the top ten brands in terms of import car sales, we can also find some patterns.
1. Affected by product unity, global chip supply shortage, and global epidemic, brands that are purely imported or mainly imported models are slowing down or even beginning to decline.
2. For luxury brands mainly domestically, imported models with complementary product lines are still growing rapidly.
3. Imported models of non-luxury brands are in a sharp decline.
Overall, with the gradual deepening of the advantages of localization production, the imported car market has become the world of luxury brands, especially personalized models of luxury brands. The proportion of luxury brands in the imported car market has reached 92% in 2021, nearly 9 percentage points higher than in 2020.
Therefore, if you want to make a difference in the imported car market, it is bound to make a clear distinction with the domestic car market, either more high-end, or more sporty, or more personalized. Brands that perform well in the imported car market are no exceptions.
How is GM going to do imported cars this time?
Now that it has restarted the import car business after a few years, GM has clearly undergone deep consideration. Participating in the Expo for four consecutive years and showing the Chinese market the "other side" that is difficult to see on domestic models is obviously not just a show of muscle.
Therefore, although there is currently less official information about GM's new import car business, from the fragmented information, we can roughly spell out the idea of GM's new import car business.
First of all, imported models will be concentrated on high-end models and personalized models that "pursue different lifestyles".
At the Past Four Years' Expo, GM's models on display include its Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac's supercars, full-size pickups and full-size SUVs. These models represent the real image of GM in the United States, and there is a clear difference in personality and target group from the domestic models of SAIC-GM Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac brands.
At the same time, the Cadillac high-performance V series, which was introduced to China as an official import, may also return to the domestic market with the restart of the import car business. Especially when Mercedes-Benz popularized the AMG series, the new model of BMW M showed a phenomenon of price increases, and the Audi RS series was also investing a lot of marketing expenses to promote, the Cadillac V series was also a card that General Motors could play.
However, from all indications, the imported model that GM took the lead in this time is most likely the new Hummer EV just released last year. On the one hand, this can fundamentally solve the problem of fuel consumption and emissions of imported large-size and large-displacement models, and on the other hand, it is also in line with the product and communication rhythm of GM to open a new chapter with the Aoteneng electric vehicle platform from 2022.
At the same time, the introduction of non-localized new brands for imported vehicles can also avoid the problem of overlapping business with SAIC-GM in the early stage to the greatest extent. This leads to the second idea of GM's new import car business: a new company led by GM to operate independently, in part in collaboration with SAIC-GM.
When the leader of imported cars, from the previous SAIC-GM to General Motors, and is a new business model of a new team, it ensures that all resources can be invested in the import car business, without having to consider the energy allocation of imported cars and domestic cars at the same time.
However, GM must consider the synergy between the import car business of the local brand and the business of SAIC-GM.
Judging from the caliber of current GM executives, if it is an imported car of Chevrolet and Cadillac, it is likely that there will still be the participation of SAIC-GM, such as Chevrolet Corvette, Chevrolet Surbuban, Chevrolet Tahoe, Cadillac Careyd, Cadillac V series and so on. These models have also been unveiled in various ways at SAIC-GM's relevant press conferences in the past few years.
However, other full-size SUVs and pickups like the Hummer EV or GMC are expected to be fully operated by GM. Moreover, in today's digital era, GM can also quickly build a new sales and service channel for imported cars through the city showroom + online order + SAIC-GM outlet after-sales model. On the Cadillac LYRIQ, the first domestic model on the Aoteneng platform, SAIC-GM is already experimenting with such a new retail model, and GM is fully capable of doing the same thing.
Write at the end
Since Mary Borah became CEO of GM in 2014, GM has been shrinking its strategy globally, from pursuing scale to focusing on profitability, and prioritizing limited resources to drive "future mobility growth." So, as GM continues to withdraw from unprofitable regional markets around the world, the money saved is used to invest in the next generation of intelligent electric vehicle architecture and autonomous driving, that is, the Aotonon platform, Super Cruise, Cruise and so on that we see today.
However, in such a chaotic world of automobile transformation, consumer diversification is reaching an unprecedented level of enthusiasm. On the one hand, the penetration rate of electric vehicles continues to increase, and on the other hand, emotional cars and performance cars have begun to show the trend of "hard currency". As a century-old store, GM has never lacked feelings and personalities, and the gradual rollout of Aoteneng's electric vehicle platform models is not only the premise for GM to introduce more future-oriented models, but also the basis for the "resurrection" of those large-sized, large-displacement, high-performance fuel models.
High-end, personalized imported models will inevitably not become the main force of volume, but GM hopes to restart the import car business, with these redefined brand of imported models, pull the scale of the volume of models to increase, so as to play a multiplier effect.