General Motors Co's new China Chief has said that the company's relationship with the Chinese partner SAIC Motor Corp. is getting stronger. Both the companies with a common objective to cater to the demand for no frills cars in Southeast Asia have come together. Bob Socia, who is the Chief of GM in China since October 1 said that SAIC's low-cost vehicle technology was important to General Motors' expansion into the emerging markets. SAIC, which is the largest car manufacturer of China became a 50 per cent partner in General Motors India operations in 2010.
SAIC's technology for manufacturing cars with a price tag as low as 30,000 yuan ($4,800) is important to GM's effort to bring introduce decent cars with a price tag that would be acceptable to increasing middle class buyers in markets like China, Indonesia and India.
Socia, in a recent interview in Shanghai said, "Products we're producing out of our joint-venture operations with SAIC serve up very well in emerging countries."
The two companies just a short while back have even opened a new plant at Liuzhou, located in southern part of China. The two in the future too has plans to open another plant to produce low-cost microvans, which would be located at Southwest city of Chongqing.
Socio, referring to SAIC said, “The relationships that we have with our partners I think are very good.” Socio said that the GM believes China's demand for passenger car and commercial vehicles to increase by more than 20 million in the coming year. A GM estimate shows that the overall market will probably grow by "5 to 8 per cent" in 2013 to 21 million vehicles.
