General Motors and its joint venture partners sold a record 3,539,970 vehicles in China in 2014 — the equivalent of selling one vehicle every nine seconds, or 9,700 vehicles each day. Those results are a 12 percent increase from the previous sales record of 3,160,377 million vehicles GM China sold in 2013.
“GM expects industry demand to rise once again this year in China, our largest global market,” said Tsien. “We will continue to take advantage of the growth opportunities by expanding our unmatched lineup of vehicles and services as well as all areas of our business to ensure we remain a leader.”
But outside of selling tons of cars, what did GM do to actually grow its business for the future? As it turns out, quite a bit.
Expanding Lineup
In 2014, GM and its joint ventures expanded their lineup with several new and refreshed models in China. These include:
- Buick Envision premium
midsizecompact SUV - Chevrolet Trax subcompact crossover
- Chevrolet Sail 3 — a refresh of the existing model
- Cadillac ATS-L luxury sport sedan
- Baojun 730 MPV
Liuzhou Proving Ground
SAIC-GM-Wuling broke ground for its new R&D center and proving ground in Liuzhou, Guangxi. The center will support the development of new vehicles for China.
New Manufacturing Initiatives
SACI-GM-Wuling also opened its new manufacturing base in Chongqing and signed an agreement for the second phase of production at the facility.
Meanwhile, Shanghai GM (Norsom Motors) opened its Phase III manufacturing facility in Shenyang, Liaoning.
OnStar Milestones
Shanghai OnStar reached a new industry high of 800,000 active subscribers and introduced several new services such as Vehicle Alarm Notification, Weather Query and the Reservation Voice Platform. It also opened its third call center in Chongqing.
Adding Dealerships
GM continued expanding the dealership networks for all of its brands — Chevy, Buick, and Cadillac. The focus was on China’s tier 3 and 4 cities.
The automaker ended 2014 with more than 4,530 dealerships across China. To provide more convenient services in the digital era, Shanghai GM launched the Buick Aftersales Flagship Store on Tmall.com and the MyChevy online 4S store.
Sustainable Growth
While doing all that, GM also maintained its support for a greener, safer and healthier community in China.
It demonstrated the Chevrolet EN-V 2.0 (Electric Networked-Vehicle) concept. The EN-V 2.0 was designed, engineered and built in Shanghai. The automaker also signed a memorandum of understanding with Shanghai Jiao Tong University to collaborate on a vehicle sharing program featuring the Chevrolet EN-V 2.0 starting in 2015.
The GM Restoring Nature Habitat Project, Safe Kids Safe Ride Project and Chevrolet Red Chalk Program were among the automaker’s key corporate social responsibility activities carried out in 2014. In its fourth year, the GM China Consumer Fuel-Saving Challenge showcased the fuel economy of products from the Buick, Chevrolet and Baojun brands.
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