The US car giant is looking to overtake rival VW in the Chinese market
A greater GM presence by 2018 Image: Freebeacon.com |
General Motors will invest more than $14bn into its Chinese operations before 2018 in a bid to dominate the growing market place. During the first 11 months of 2014, total sales increased 10% year-on-year to 3.18m, meaning growth had actually slowed by 1.4% from the previous year.
Despite slowing sales, China remains a core part of the company's global strategy. Dan Ammann, the newly-appointed president of GM, has allocated the investment for 60 new models, nine of which will be SUVs. The car giant will also increase its production capacity by increasing the number of factories to five and overall capacity to 5m units a year.
The investment is part of GM's bid to edge-out its biggest competitor, VW, for the top spot in China. VW has also been ramping up investment in the region and has almost doubled capacity from 2.2m in 2012 to 4m units.
GM sees its upmarket Cadillac brand as the key to winning-over luxury buyers and will release several more models for the Chinese market.