China with its massive emerging middle class is shaping up to be one of the important markets for General Motors. In fact, for one of the Detroit firm’s brands, China is actually its biggest market by far. We’re talking of course about Buick that has just surpassed the 3 million mark in Chinese sales since GM’s joint venture began offering the brand in the country in 1999.
Last year, Buick’s sales in China rose 23.0% to a new high of 550,010 vehicles. That’s compared to 155,289 deliveries (+51.9%) in the USA in 2010. Buick has more than 400 stores across China with the brand’s lineup comprising of several familiar models including the Regal, Enclave and La Crosse, as well as market-specific cars such as the Opel Astra-based Excelle XT, the new GL8 MPV, and the Holden Caprice-derived Park Avenue.
At the 2011 Shanghai Auto Show, Buick premiered a new concept model, the Envision SUV, which was jointly developed by Shanghai GM and the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC), and offers Chinese buyers a look into the brand’s future plans.
In 2010, General Motors delivered 1,033,307 vehicles in China, and became the country’s first passenger carmaker to sell more than a million vehicles in a single year.
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