Wulin Gaowa is the first Design Director of the GM China Advanced Studio in Shanghai. Chinese tastes – Buick sells more cars by far in China then the U.S. – now strongly influences Buick designs, including a somewhat dated American taste for chrome.
Both General Motors Company and Ford Motor Company have set September sales records in China, the world’s largest automarket. The results were in consistent with the widely disparate positions of the Number One and Number Two U.S. automakers in the communist country.
GM, the biggest automaker in the U.S. and the largest in China when its government mandated joint ventures are counted, sold 244,266 vehicles in China, up 1.7% from September 2011 and 10.5% from August 2012. Ford, which ignored the Chinese market for years, sold 59,570 vehicles including partners in September, a 35% increase compared to the same time last year.
During the first nine months of 2012, sales by GM and its joint ventures in China increased 10% on an annual basis to a record 2,081,812 units. Ford sold 428,083 wholesale units, an 11% increase from the same period last year.
Shanghai GM’s domestic sales were up 3.7% year on year to an all-time September high of 120,010 units. SAIC-GM-Wuling’s sales in China also set a September record, increasing 0.4% to 119,510 units. Domestic sales by FAW-GM were down 5.0% to 4,581 units. GM has 12 joint ventures, two wholly-owned foreign enterprises and more than 35,000 employees in China.
Ford China’s passenger car sales, which include vehicles, produced at Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Ltd. (CFMA) and imported Ford Edge SUVs, achieved an all-time record high with 44,102 wholesale units sold, up 54% from last year. Ford’s wholly owned subsidiaries, joint ventures and investment in China include Ford Motor (China) Limited, Ford Motor Research & Engineering (Nanjing) Co., Ford Automotive Finance (China), Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co., Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co. Nanjing Company, Changan Ford Mazda Engine Co. and Jiangling Motors Co., Ltd.
(Accurate Chinese retail sales numbers do not exist, so AutoInformed’s auto sales reporting is based on wholesale numbers.)
