GM expands in Europe

[Emher]

Saw this on another forum, thought I'd share.


Link to original article: http://www.euro2day.gr/articlesfna/55111201/

"GM gears up for European expansion

By John Griffiths in Detroit
Published: 14/1/2008 | Last Updated: 14/1/2008 23:35 London Time


General Motors is to expand its production and distribution capacity within Europe to build 700,000 Chevrolet cars a year in the region by 2010 and cross the 1m a year sales threshold by 2012.

Both output and sales volumes represent considerably more than double 2007 levels for what has become one of the world's most rapidly growing brands.

They compare with just 162,000 sales and token output in 2003, the year in which GM rebranded Daewoo cars as Chevrolets in Europe after taking over the collapsed South Korean carmaker.

The European expansion forms part of an intensified drive to create a global brand identity for Chevrolet - until recently seen mostly as a blue-collar brand for North America - by integrating into a single range larger, US-built models and smaller cars built in Korea and Europe.

Last year, but for supply constraints, Chevrolet could have sold half a million units in the region, Wayne Brannon, executive director of Chevrolet Europe, told the Financial Times at the Detroit show Monday.

By the end of the year it had sold 457,000. "We're still having trouble believing the sales growth."

The range of Chevrolet-branded cars to be sold within Europe is also to be more than doubled, with new products including small MPVs (so-called people carriers) and "lifestyle" pick-up vehicles popular in North America.

Chevrolet is to tap production capacity at plants around the world to meet demand. These include a new facility at St Petersburg in Russia, a modernised former Daewoo plant in Poland due to start in April with a capacity to build up to 150,000 units annually of the Aveo small family car, and an expanded joint venture plant in Uzbekistan.

Mr Brannon said: "At this stage I'm not quite sure where all the production will come from; GM operations in China and India are likely to build some as well."

Chevrolet's Korean operations, which have also been given global responsibility for design and development of GM's small hatchback models such as the Vauxhall/Opel Corsa, are already stretched to capacity making 1.9m built-up cars and kits for assembly outside South Korea.

As part of the brand-building, a completely new Chevrolet Camaro - but bearing strong resemblance to one of North America's most revered affordable sporting cars of the 1960s and 1970s - is also to be sold throughout Europe from 2009, including right-hand-drive versions for the UK.

The region's 2,200 dealers, of which more are to be re*cruited, have also been told that some are likely to be offered the opportunity to sell GM's Porsche and Ferrari-rivalling, 200mph Corvette.

This would be alongside the independent European distributor, Dutch-based Kroymans Corporation, it appointed several years ago to market both its Cadillac and Corvette brands.

The Chevrolet name was quietly dropped from the Corvette as part of the Kroymans agreement, amid unease that the low-cost South Korean Chevrolets already flooding into Europe might tarnish the GM supercar's image.

Now, however, it is to be revived as part of the brand-building - "the Corvette's always been a Chevrolet", said Mr Brannon.

He said GM would place much more emphasis on the heritage of the Chevrolet brand, which GM executives have now concluded has only positive connotations within Europe."


For me this is UNBELIVABLE FANTASTICALY GREAT NEWS! This means the Camaro will be cheaper here then I estimated, easier to get, and also making a lot more impression on the Swedish car climated which IMO is in great need of refresment. My only concern is if they'll even bother to offer V8 for it here then, but I do hope they do.

[DGthe3]

This is good to hear, sounds like they expect an extra half a million orders in Europe in the near future. That is massive, and even if some Chevy's steal from Opel's and Saabs, there is still a large increase in their total expected sales. The other spin-off is that it provides them an outlet to perfect small cars which are likely to be needed to meet the new CAFE in the states. The one funny thing was the story of Corvette and Chevy in Europe. I suppose it makes sense to make Corvette its own brand because it is kinda odd if Chevys were primarily seen as Aveos and similar over there to then have a car to rival the best the Germans and Italians can come up with.

[Emher]

^I don't know how many sales from the Saabs it will take, I think Audis and Subarus are more the target actually. Saabs are nice cars but not overly fast. I think some of the fastest Saabs could perhaps rival the V6 versions of the Camaro. Certainly the Opel GT could be a target though, or more like the Camaro could be a compliment to it since some of us are too big for the GT.

Forgetting about the Camaro though I think the new malibu can go really great here in Europe. In any case this wil be intresting and I don't think GM minds stealing some sales from themselves, but more importantly from other brands.

[willisit]

Sounds good to me - Rebrand (sort of) and get the Camaro and Corvette side-by-side in Chevy dealers here in the UK. Oh hell yeah!

[Twin Turbo]

Well, there's a lot of brand building to do for Chevrolet in the UK. It's really done them no favours whatsoever by rebadging below average Daewoos and selling them as Chevrolets, that was a really BAD MOVE.

I wish them luck as car's such as the new Malibu could do well over here, but the reality is Chevrolet will be judged by Joe Public as a rival to the Korean brands such as Kia and Hyundai :( That's exactly the problem facing Dodge too. We get the Nitro, Avenger and Caliber, but they are only average in terms of dynamics and poor in terms of interior quality. That wouldn't be so bad if they were cheap, but the likes of the Avenger is pitched price-wise against the Ford Mondeo, which is an excellent all rounder.

It's been a question I've pondered for a long time. Just who in the UK would sell the Camaro? Would it be in Chevrolet dealers next to a crappy Matiz? Would it be in some select Vauxhall dealer (who already sell the VXR8 - and would the Camaro then be badged a Vauxhall?) Or in stand-alone dealerships such as Stratstones who currently sell the Corvette?

Hmm, I went in to buy this:


But preferred the look of this:


Either way, it's great the Camaro was singled out in this article. As much as LHD doesn't bother me, a lot of Brits would ignore the Camaro if the steering wheel was on the "wrong side".

[80Zedder]

I found brits to be uptight, i should know i have family living in Manchester. If they dont like it, tell them to pound sand.

[Twin Turbo]

Well, there's about 70 million of us, so I'm sure we're not all uptight.