GM Chairman Mark Reuss announces a $2.2 billion investment in the automaker's Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant in Michigan for new all-electric trucks and autonomous vehicles on January 27, 2020.
Michael Wayland/CNBC
DETROIT – General Motors believes it can regain market share in China after hitting a roughly 20-year low last year amid changing market conditions and increased domestic competition, GM Chairman Mark Reuss said Thursday.
The veteran GM executive said new all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, as well as the redesign of its Buick brand, will help the automaker improve its operations in the region.
GM's market share in China, including its joint ventures, has plummeted from about 15% in 2015 to 8.6% last year, the first time it has fallen below 9% since 2003. GM operations have also fallen, 78.5%. % since peaking in 2014, according to regulatory filings.
Reuss also highlighted the competitiveness of GM's Chinese joint venture partners, such as Wuling Motors. GM first established operations in China in 1997.
“You can look at it however you want from a broader geopolitical point of view, but for us in China, it's been a huge advantage to be partnered so deeply for so many years with our JV partners there,” Reuss said during the conference. Financial Times Future of Car Summit. “We have an advantage there with Buick and Wuling, and that goes both ways.”
GM's falling market share in China is the result of growing competition from government-backed domestic automakers, driven by nationalism and a generational shift in consumer perceptions of the auto industry and vehicles. electrical. The company, along with other US-based automakers, is managing geopolitical tensions between China and the United States.
GM's U.S.-based brands, such as Buick and Chevrolet, have seen their sales in China decline more than those of their joint venture. The joint venture's models accounted for about 60% of the 2.1 million GM vehicles sold last year in China.
The market declines have raised questions about whether GM would abandon China, as has happened with other underperforming markets in recent years.
Reuss said Thursday that GM plans to remain in China “for the foreseeable future.”
GM CEO Mary Barra told investors in February that “nothing is off the table to ensure GM has a strong future to generate adequate profitability and adequate returns for our investors” in China.
GM announced a “leadership transition” in China on Tuesday. The automaker said Steve Hill, currently GM's vice president of global business operations, would succeed GM China president Julian Blissett, effective June 1.
