GM plans a fourth manufacturing facility, while Renault is negotiating with China’s domestic producer, Dongfeng, for use of its plant.
Western automakers are still finding routes into Chinese vehicle production, despite recent government policies, reported by OATS, to limit investment benefits for foreign companies.
Shanghai GM plans to build a new plant in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, Hebei Province, which will have a 300,000 vehicle per year capacity on completion. The plant will be its fourth in China and will ramp up annual production numbers to around 1.3 million units. The existing plants in Shanghai, Yantai and Shenyang already have a combined capacity of 960,000 vehicles per year.
Meanwhile, Renault SA is currently negotiating with China's Dongfeng Motor Corp to produce vehicles in Dongfeng's Wuhan assembly plant, with a view to selling the cars through the Chinese automaker’s Aeolus-brand dealerships. At present, Renault's market presence in China is relatively small, importing only 19,262 vehicles into the country last year. However, the French car producer – the world’s fourth largest automotive group thanks to its alliance with Japan’s Nissan - hopes that localising production will enable it to reach more customers nationwide as well as avoid costly import duties.