Sales are about to fall out of the top ten! Relying on big price cuts to survive, SAIC-GM is "terminally ill"?

The development of American cars in China can be described as "lonely". In addition to Tesla, the electric giant, which is growing rapidly, other fuel car companies are indeed having a hard time day by day, taking General Motors, the most "vocal" in China, as an example, it is indeed becoming less and less present in China.

In October 2023, SAIC-GM's monthly retail sales were 72,721 units, ranking 9th in the manufacturer's retail sales list in the same period. Compared to the same period last year, SAIC-GM's retail sales fell by 16.4%. From January to October, SAIC-GM's retail sales were 731,610 units, down 14.2% year-on-year. According to this trend, it is difficult for SAIC-GM to sell more than 900,000 vehicles this year, which is not a good signal.

It is important to know that SAIC-GM is a very large company, with three well-known brands of Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac, and also occupies part of the domestic low-end, mid-range and high-end shares. At its peak in 2017, its annual sales could exceed 2 million units, that is, the level of "equal" with the North and South Volkswagen, but only six years later, SAIC-GM's annual sales will fall below one million units.

Behind SAIC-GM's continuous refresh of the "sales bottom line" is the malaise of the three major brands.

First of all, as the main force of SAIC-GM, Buick's sales in China are not as good as day by day. Entering 2023, many of Buick's models are performing weakly, and it is difficult to see Buick in the TOP20 list of sedans and SUVs. For example, Envision, which used to sell tens of thousands of vehicles a month, only sold 8,299 new cars in October, and the B-class car Regal, which has always been relatively stable in the market, has now fallen to just over 4,000 units in monthly sales. At present, Buick is also developing well in GL8, and its monthly sales can exceed 10,000, but it is also in danger of being eaten up by new energy MPVs.

Secondly, Chevrolet, which is positioned lower than Buick, is even more in danger. I have to admit that Chevrolet has become more and more marginalized in China, judging from the sales in October, in addition to the classic model Cruze sales of more than 10,000, the sales of other models are not more than three digits, and the brand's retail sales in October are only 13498 units, that is to say, Cruze accounts for more than eighty percent of the share, without this car, Chevrolet's sales are simply unbearable.

As for Cadillac, it is not as good as it used to be among the second-tier luxury brands. According to the data, Cadillac sold more than 17,000 units in October and more than 150,000 units in the first ten months. You must know that Cadillac's popularity in China is not low, although it is also crowned with the title of "bath king", but people have been able to sell more than 200,000 units for several consecutive years, but compared with this year, Cadillac is indeed in decline.

Many people say that SAIC-GM's sales are declining, and the "three-cylinder engine" cannot escape its guilt. Of course, GM's use of three-cylinder engines is indeed the fuse for the decline in word of mouth, but the most fundamental thing is that the overall strength of its products is still in the previous era of fuel vehicles, and there is no obvious progress in the intelligence, technology, appearance and other things that consumers value nowadays, so when there are more competing products in the automobile market, SAIC-GM can't resist.

More importantly, over the years, in order to maintain its own living space, SAIC-GM has been fighting a "price war", and many of its main models have great discounts in the terminal market. For example, the Cadillac CT5, which was very popular in October, had a monthly sales volume of more than 10,000 units, but behind the hot results, it gave a concession of about 90,000 yuan. Consumers are happy to buy a car, but this kind of price reduction that seriously damages the ecology has also affected the value retention rate and reputation of SAIC-GM, and the brand strength has also been greatly discounted over time.

Write at the end

Once upon a time, SAIC-GM also won the first place among domestic automobile manufacturers, and the American cars at that time were indeed very beautiful, and the Chinese people's pursuit of joint venture cars also reached a climax. But market competition is dynamic, in the era of intelligence and electrification, if you can't come up with more iconic products, it will be very uncomfortable for traditional fuel car companies, and the rapid decline of SAIC-GM, how to get out of the current predicament, not to step into the footsteps of French and Korean cars, is also a problem they need to solve.

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