[科技前沿]通用汽车与一汽组建轻型商用车合资企业_科技

[科技前沿]通用汽车与一汽组建轻型商用车合资企业

The joint venture comes as part of GM's strategic move to make China a pillar of its global business, establishing a presence in key segments of the country's expanding auto industry and positioning its operations to be an export hub to take advantage of relatively lower costs in China.

'This is an important complement to the rest of our [business] portfolio,' Mr. Wale said. GM's business in China already includes production and sales of passenger cars and micro-minivans with different Chinese partners.

Helped by government stimulus measures this year, including sales-tax cuts on cars, GM's China sales in the January-July period soared 42.8% from the same period last year to 959,035 units.

China is one of a few major markets world-wide that have managed to grow despite the global economic downturn since last year.

The commercial vehicle venture follows a recent move by GM to expand exports of low-cost micro-minivans made in China to additional markets in South America, the Middle East and North Africa.

Mr. Wale said the new venture with FAW also would look at the possibility of exporting light commercial trucks 'over time.'

The venture's two existing plants, which come from FAW, are in northern Heilongjiang province and in the southwestern province of Yunnan and have a combined annual capacity of about 100,000 vehicles.

The venture expects to sell 80,000 to 90,000 vehicles this year, including those already sold by FAW, and is targeting sales of more than 100,000 units next year, Mr. Wale said.