SAIC-GM has appointed Lu Xiao as President and Sales Chief during a period in which General Motors’ joint venture in China is attempting to regain lost sales.
According to a report from Automotive News, Xiao previously served as Executive Vice President at Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center Co., a technology center jointly operated by SAIC and General Motors. Xiao replaced Zhuang Jingxiong as SAIC-GM President on August 9th, 2024.
Beyond that, former SAIC-GM-Wuling Vice President Xue Haitao has succeeded Lu Yi as Vice President for Marketing and Sales.
Of course, this restructuring of SAIC-GM leadership comes as the joint venture saw wholesale deliveries plummet to approximately one million units in 2023 after a record high of roughly two million examples in 2017. Shipments dropped 82 percent on a year-over-year basis to about 15,000 units in July 2024, with year-to-date volume declining 55 percent to less than 241,000 examples.
In regard to Q2 2024 sales, GM China reported a 29-percent decrease in sales to 372,800 units. This was good for a $104-million loss.
Despite these notable headwinds and local competition, General Motors reportedly remains committed to the Chinese market. In order to stay competitive, the Detroit-based automaker plans to make its Chinese operations financially self-sufficient, and will implement a series of jobs cuts. In fact, The General has already begun reducing its Chinese workforce, as GM China’s research and development department has seen some cuts. Moving forward, General Motors is expected to engage in discussions with its local partner – SAIC Motor Corporation – to explore further capacity reductions.
For reference, GM had previously raked in profits from its Chinese operations, but has dealt with increased competition from Chinese-based automakers like BYD, Chery, and Geely. By offering highly affordable models with desirable features, these local competitors have been cutting into the Detroit-based automaker’s bottom line.
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Comments
Yeah – the ‘American’ companies have been leaving (I think the first was JEEP) and that will continue….
They should just all leave right now….
But the Great Brain CEOs will stick around for many more quarters of continuing losses, then their stockholders will be screaming to leave, and they ultimately will.
In GM’s defense the WSJ has a recent article about how China domestics have greatly reduced the sales of all outside auto companies. When I worked there the quarterly reports always would show China operations as Equity Income, whatever the hell that is. So maybe it will not effect GM’s cash flow.
China doesn’t allow for foreign ownership by anyone except blackrock. So all sales actually go to China, and your given an “equity credit” for your investment, which if you want to withdraw those funds, you must ask the CCP, and they might grant your request, minus their fines and deductions. Say what you want about American corruption, when you compare it to the rest of the world, boy do we look clean and honest!
Time for all American companies to digest and leave China. It will only get worse.
Hope Mary moves there