GM Finds Success In Chinese Market With Inexpensive Baojun Model

China has always had a taste for imported foreign cars in the past decade, but GM has really caught the lightning by the tail with its Baojun, a brand made specifically for China with a price that can go as low as $6,000. It turns out that this success came from a brilliant market reading, with GM successfully predicting that the smaller cities in China would be interested in buying cars as the middle class expands. The low price tag, domestic naming and production all combined into a package Chinese consumers couldn’t turn down. As GMC has retreated from Europe, India and Russia, this is a much-needed win for the Detroit automaker company.   For much of the past decade, sales of global automakers were buoyed by demand from China, whose residents have eagerly snapped up locally produced versions of pricey foreign cars such as Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen’s Audi, and BMW’s namesake sedans. Yet General Motors Co. has not only fared well with its premium-priced Buick line, it’s killing it with Baojun, a made-for-the-mainland brand that sells for as little as $6,000. There was a method to the down-market move. GM figured the next wave of car buyers in China would come from the smaller cities, especially in the interior of the country, where the middle class is growing and people are buying more cars. Baojun sales are up tenfold since 2013, to 1 million cars last year, more than Chevrolet and not far behind Buick. GM rode the postwar economic boom in the U.S., when legendary company Chairman Alfred Sloan Jr. had a brand for “every purse and purpose.” Click Here to Read More

GM Finds Success In Chinese Market With Inexpensive Baojun Model is courtesy of CarDaddy's Blog

source https://autonews.cardaddy.com/gm-finds-success-in-chinese-market-with-inexpensive-baojun-model/