General Motors announced last week that it would be pulling Chevrolet out of the Thai market due to low plant utilization at its Rayong manufacturing facility and poor sales forecast volumes.
With this decision, almost all GM employees in Thailand will be laid off, including all 1,500 workers at the Rayong plant. The company will continue to keep a small presence in the country, though, in order to provide aftersales and customer support to existing Chevrolet owners in the region.
GM Rayong Plant in Thailand
In a statement released this week, Hector Villarreal, president of GM Southeast Asia, said Chevrolet Thailand will remain “committed to looking after our valued customers,” even after it has ceased manufacturing and sales in the country.
“Although we will cease new vehicle sales by the end of this year, Chevrolet owners can rest assured that we will continue to honor all vehicle warranties and provide aftersales support through a dedicated aftersales network in Thailand,” he said. “We will also retain an Aftersales and Customer support team and business in Thailand to ensure existing customers will have all their Aftersales, service, repair and spare parts needs met.”
GM Thailand’s General Director of GM Thailand & Export Aftersales, Vanchana Unakul, said the company is already working on the logistics of its aftersales and customer support efforts.
“GM Thailand has a warehouse facility with ample capacity, currently accommodating thousands of parts for all Chevrolet vehicle models, including current and older models,” Unakul said. “My aftersales team and I will remain operating in Thailand to ensure we can continue looking after customers.”
The company says its customers can rest “assured they will continue to receive and benefit from Chevrolet Aftersales and Customer Services.” This will include honoring all three-year, 100,000-km bumper-to-bumper warranties, providing service work from certified Chevrolet technicians and continuing to operate its 24-hour roadside assistance service. Chevrolet Thailand will continue to use genuine Chevrolet parts to repair customer vehicles as well, and operate its Customer Assistance Center, which will stay open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time.
GM Rayong Plant in Thailand
In addition to halting its Thai operations, GM also announced last week that it would discontinue the Holden brand and halt sales in both Australia and New Zealand. GM CEO Mary Barra says the company is currently restructuring its international operations to focus on markets where it has “the right strategies to drive robust returns,” and “prioritizing global investments that will drive growth in the future of mobility, especially in the areas of EVs and AVs.”
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Comments
Where is the 2.8L duramax engine (from the Colorado and Canyon) manufactured?
I hope GM didn’t just cancel that engine.
I hope they did cancel that engine. Give the Colorado the 3.0 from the Silverado, so the ZR2 can better compete with the soon to be Ecodiesel Gladiator.
3.0 will not fit. Too long. A V8 swap barely fits.
I6 engines are great on how they run but are difficult to package.