GM China President Matt Tsien told reporters in Detroit today that he expects the Chinese market to continue to grow for the automaker.
China now accounts for roughly 37% of General Motors’ global sales, making it the automaker’s single largest market in the world, Matt Tsien, president of General Motors China, said during a meeting with reporters at GM headquarters in Detroit.
Tsien said it is difficult to predict if that percentage will continue to grow in next several years. “You have to know what the rest of the world is going to do to answer that,” he said.
But GM expects the Chinese market to expand from the 25 million units sold last year to 30 million units in 2020. “That’s like adding a market the size of Australia every year for the next five years,” he said.
GM expects to “grow faster” than the overall market as the demand in China for utility vehicles, multi-purpose vehicles and luxury cars continues to grow, he said.
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The Chinese market has grown by 11-fold since the turn of the century and GM’s total vehicles sold in 2015, 3.6 million, equals the total number of vehicles sold in all of China in 2000.
“I know there were a lot of concerns but it turned out to be a record year up from 24 million in 2014,” Tsien added, noting that GM’s major joint venture, SGM, sold more than 2 million vehicles and the Buick brand chalked up more than 1 million in sales.
Tsien said GM plans to introduce 13 new models this year and a total of 60 new vehicles by 2020. The new models will include a full-range of plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles, which the Chinese government supports.
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“The drive towards green technology is pervasive,” said Tsien, noting that GM will be introducing at least 10 “New Energy Vehicles” in China in the next few years.
“What I have seen is consistency in the encouragement of electric vehicles,” he said. “There are multiple incentives in some cities.”
In Shanghai, for example, anyone buying an electric vehicle can get a free license plate, which represents a huge saving for consumers since license plates for new vehicles with internal combustion engines are rationed and auctioned off, he noted.
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“We have an Advanced Technical Center in Shanghai, which includes an advanced battery lab,” he said. But we also have access to GM’s portfolio of advanced technology,” he said. “We’re quite involved. We are engaged with SAE China to help the connectivity and mobility of intelligent connected vehicles.