Updated: Chevrolet Market Share Is 94 Percent… In Uzbekistan
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File this one into your statistics collection: Chevrolet dominates the automotive market in Uzbekistan, a country in Central Asia that was once part of the Soviet Union. According to Tim Lee, President of GM International Operations, the bow tie brand is responsible for 94 percent of the country’s car market. How did this come to be?
The short answer? Through a joint venture between Uzbekistan automaker UzAutoSanoat and GM Daewoo.
The pact began in 1996 between Daewoo and UzAutoSanoat. The General came into the picture in 2008, after Daewoo went bankrupt, causing UzAutoSanoat to take over the venture. After that, GM Daewoo and UzAutoSanoat created another joint venture called GM Uzbekistan. The operation now builds the Chevrolet Matiz, Lacetti, and Captiva in Uzbekistan. In case you were wondering – the first two are Chevy-badged Daewoos.
If only GM could work some of this magic in the U.S. market…
And yes, for the downers out there who aren’t capable of enjoying good news, we understand there’s some serious number “fudging” going on here. Nevertheless, it makes for a great headline!
Update: Here’s an update from GM Europe: for January through May of this year, Chevrolet sold 59,485 out of a total market of 63,220 vehicles (the market is car sales excluding light commercial vehicles). For the first five months of the year, Chevy nabbed 98.6 percent of the market. Bam!
[Source: Inside Line]
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December 24, 2010 at 8:35 am
There is not so big number manipulating in Uzbekistan. Indeed there are a lot of cars (around 75-80%) on the street of Uzbekistan which are produced by GM Uzbekistan. We like GM cars even though they aren’t fuel efficient like japanese or korean cars. One of the reasons that we buy on GM cars because of car market protection in here. If you buy a car produced in other country then you have to pay customs fee which is plus 100% to the actual cost of the car. For example is Nissan Altima 2010 is approximately 20 000 USD in Uzbekistan it would be around 38 000 or 40 000 USD because of customs fee. In the US is free market that’s why GM can’t make any magic out there. I would love to see in the near future another car plant like Volkswagen or Nissan in Uzbekistan.
December 24, 2010 at 7:37 pm
Quadrat — that’s an interesting fact – thanks for sharing it with us! However, I do take issue with this statement: “We like GM cars even though they aren’t fuel efficient like japanese or korean cars.” Which models are you referring to, specifically?
For example, the Chevy Cruze, Spark, Equinox, and Traverse are all more fuel efficient than the competition from Japan… or Korea (except maybe for the new Elantra compared to the new Cruze).
Alex
Founder, GM Authority