Last year, Buick sold 177,633 vehicles in the States and 645,537 cars in China, with the Excelle, which is the local version of the Verano sedan, taking the first spot overall in the passenger car segment.
Cadillac, on the other hand, delivered 152,389 vehicles in the U.S. but only about 30,000 in the world’s most populous country, despite an increase of 73 percent over 2010.
Given China’s thirst for luxury products, it is no wonder that General Motors would like to repeat the success of Buick with its flagship brand.
According to General Motors CEO Dan Akerson, who was speaking on the company’s first quarter earnings call for 2012, there is a plan in motion to boost Cadillac’s sales in China six-fold in the next few years.
“We’d like to be in the 150,000 to 180,000 range within the next three to five years,” said Akerson. We’re serious about this, and we think we’ll have the right products for that market, as well.”
GM’s CEO pointed out that this is a very important strategic move for Cadillac as half of all luxury purchases in the world, all categories not just cars, are predicted to occur in China by the end of the decade.
“The key for us in China has been to stay in offense, which is why I traveled to Beijing auto show last week and announced that we will add an additional 600 dealers in China this year and add one new Cadillac model to our lineup in China each year through 2016”
Akerson said that first new model is the XTS luxury sedan, which will go into production at the company’s Shanghai GM facility later this year, followed by the ELR electric coupe in the very near future.
“We want Cadillac to be big and important in China,” he added. “Even at the current scale, it is a profitable business and we absolutely want to grow that. Our peers get significant profit contributions from premium brands, and we want to do that too.”
Story References: CNBC
CADILLAC ELR / CONVERJ CONCEPT
