Why Chevrolet Spin Phase Out

How Chevrolet Started, Grew & Became $11.5 Billion Company

Success Secrets TV:

How Chevrolet Started, Grew & Became $11.5
Billion Company
The name Chevrolet originated from a Swiss-born
American racer Louis-Joseph Chevrolet, who
founded his company with William Durant in
1911, stayed for four years and then left
his own company to Durant in 1915.
The Chevrolet Company previously called the
Chevrolet Division of General Motors Company
and simply called the Chevy is the automobile
department of General Motors, a manufacturing
company in the United States.
How Chevrolet Began
Twenty years before Chevrolet, Durant was
the founder of a successful Durant-Dort Carriage
Company which manufactured horse-drawn vehicles.
And so Durant wouldn't even touch a car with
a ten-foot pole, let alone allow his daughter
to ride in what he called, "loud and dangerous
horseless carriages."
But as time passed he realized that there
were more cars than carriages on the American
streets; an experience that did not settle
well with the relatively tentative public.
As the government regulated cars for their
safety, Durant had other ideas.
Why not improve the security of these cars
instead?
In 1904, Durant approached a struggling Buick
Motor Company and became its controlling investor.
Within a span of four years, Durant demonstrated
his salesman attitude and transformed Buick
into a leading automobile name amongst the
likes of Ford, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac.
For Durant, however, it was only the start.
Durant figured he could further improve his
odds in the industry if he built a holding
company that would control several automobile
divisions, with each division manufacturing
their own car.
With the Buick's outstanding profits, Durant
had sufficient capital to found the General
Motors Company in 1908.
A year later, General Motors acquired several
car brands like Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac,
Elmore, and others.
Unfortunately,Durant got so carried away in
his "automobile acquisition crusade" that
GM suffered cash shortage with their sales
losing to Ford's.
And so, in 1910, General Motors showed Durant
the exit door.
But Durant did not give up.
Having regained his bearings, he reunited
with an old colleague from the days of the
Buick motor company, Louis-Joseph Chevrolet.
Durant knew the Swiss-born American as a man
whose competency for car mechanics matched
his passion for racing.
In 1909, Louis had participated in the Giant
Despair Hillclimb.
An oddly apt name, considering the Hillclimb
race was less about the racers themselves
and more about test-driving the competing
car brands they drove.
Therefore, when Durant offered a chance to
build more automobiles, Louis couldn't resist
signing his name on the dotted line alongside
Durant's.
In 1911, Louis co-founded the Chevrolet Motor
Company with Durant.
Durant used Louis’ racing status as a means
of building a motor company, and his way of
getting back at General Motors.
The first Chevrolet car, the Series C Classic
Six was designed by Etienne Planche with directions
by Louis.
The prototype was ready before the company
was incorporated even though the production
didn’t happen until 1913 where it was introduced
at an auto show in New York.
In 1914, Chevrolet redesigned its logo.
And so a "bowtie emblem" logo was used on
Chevrolet’s first produced cars in 1914:
the Chevrolet H series and L series models.
That same year, Durant and Louis argued about
their differing intentions for Chevrolet’s
future car designs.
Durant wanted simple and affordable cars that
would surpass those of Fords.
On the other hand, Louis preferred playing
it fast and loose, with luxury or racing cars.
These differences split these two associates
and Louis sold his shares of the company to
Durant.
Now alone at the helm, Durant was able to
focus on his next winning car design.
He achieved this in 1916 when the cheaper
Chevrolet Series 490 finally outpaced Ford
in sales and cemented Chevrolet’s place
among the big automobile names.
To say Chevrolet made huge profits during
this period would be a severe understatement.
Durant revisited General Motors as a controlling
investor, purchasing their stocks, which gave
him the leverage to launching himself into
leading General Motors once more.
By 1917, Durant had become the president of
General Motors.
All was right, now that Durant's "big automobile"
dream was back on track.
And of course, his first directive was merging
the highly successful Chevrolet into the parent
company General Motors as a separate division.
How Chevrolet Grew
In 1918, Chevrolet launched a new V8 powered
model, the Series D for open two-seat cars
and the touring cars that could seat 5 passengers.
These models didn't sell well though and they
were scrapped by the next year.
Given Chevrolet's successful track record
in the market, General Motors rebranded and
sold their commercial grade cars and trucks
as Chevrolet with similar appearances with
the Chevrolet’s vehicles in 1919 from Chevrolet
factories located in Flint, Michigan.
The automobile company built several branch
assembly plants in New York, Ohio, Missouri,
California, Texas, and Canada.
Somewhere between the 1920s and 1940s, Chevrolet
would see Durant's vision for "producing simple
and affordable cars" come true.
In fact, Chevrolet, Ford and Plymouth were
known to Americans as "the low priced three".
During this period, one of Chevrolet's most
notable cars was the Stovebolt introduced
in 1929, which was tag-lined "a six for the
price of four".
This and several generations of the car model
blew away the competition of Ford and Plymouth.
In 1953, the Chevy Corvette, a sport’s car
with two seats and a fiberglass body debuted
to become the first mass-produced sports car
in the United States, championing the "America's
Sports Car" appeal.
The appeal of the Corvette and other Chevrolet
passenger cars would be enhanced with the
first-time introduction of Rochester Ramjet
fuel-injection engine as a high-performance
option for the price of $484.
The Chevrolet small block V8 car design made
its debut in 1955 and remained in circulation
longer than other mass produced engines around
the world.
Modifications to the V8 engine including the
aluminum block and heads, the electronic engine
management and the port fuel injection gave
birth to the designs in production today.
In 1958, Chevrolet introduced the Impala series,
which went on to become one of the best-selling
American cars in history experiencing popularity
during the 60s and 70s.
The parent company General Motors introduced
Chevrolet to Europe in 2005.
With rebranded cars manufactured from the
General Motors branch in Korea acquired Daewoo
Motors.
The economic depression between 2007 and 2010
hit Chevrolet hard.
But the road to recovery began in 2010 with
the introduction of fuel-efficient cars and
trucks to compete with foreign automobile
manufacturers.
Within the same year, Chevrolet introduced
the plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, Chevrolet
Volt in America, which was sold under the
name Opel/Vauxhall Ampera throughout Europe
with a record 5,268 units soldand became the
world's best-selling plug-in hybrid electric
vehicle (PHEV) car in 2012, winning the award
for the North American Car of the Year, European
Car of the Year and World Green of the Year.
The series was then named the combined Volt/Ampera
that was sold across the world.
It exceeded the 100,000 unit sales milestone
in late 2005 and eleven years later the Volt
family of vehicles had become the world's
best-selling plug-in hybrid as well as the
third best selling electric car after the
Tesla Model S and the Nissan Leaf cars.
In 2011, Chevrolet set a global sales record
of 4.76 million vehicles sold worldwide
In late 2013, the Chevy brand was withdrawn
from Europe by General Motors leaving the
Corvette and Camero lines.
In 2016, Chevrolet unveiled the first affordable
mass-produced all-electric car the Chevrolet
Bolt EV.
This car too has won several awards.
Where Chevrolet Is Today
Chevrolet now has its headquarters in Detroit,
Michigan, and operates throughout 140 countries
in North and South America, Asia, Australia,
South Africa, and Europe with over two million
vehicles sold annually in the US alone and
a brand value of $11.5 billion.
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Why GM Failed In India

CNBC:

Over the last 20 years, the
Indian automotive market has grown from
about 500,000 new passenger cars,
hatchbacks, sedans and utilities to
about 3.5
million in 2018.
The market has an expected compound annual
growth rate of about 5 to
6 percent over the next 10 years.
But, some automakers have struggled
to make it work.
Among them is General
Motors, the largest U.S.
car company. GM stopped selling cars in
India in 2017 after years of
declining market share.
It's a striking move for GM, which
in recent years has also closed
shop in other regions around the
world, as leadership focuses on
maximizing profits and making investments
in new technologies such as
electric power trains
and mobility services.
With a population of more than
1 billion people, India is becoming
one of the world's
largest automotive markets.
The country is poised to surpass
Japan as the world's third biggest
new car market in 2021.
So while there is ample
opportunity for automakers, the Indian
landscape has been particularly difficult
to navigate, especially for
American firms. GM watched its share
of the Indian market erode
steadily over several years, bottoming out
at about one percent in
2016 just before the
automaker pulled out.
So if the Indian market is
growing, why did GM struggle, especially
when GM has been
so successful in China?
To be fair, quite a few automakers
tend to have difficulty in the
Indian market. First of all, India
is a massive country with a
diverse population of roughly 1.3
billion people.
India, I think, we are
definitely a complex market.
The income levels
are quite heterogeneous.
We are divided, actually into
urban India and rural India.
The consumer requirements are actually
different even the needs are
different in both these markets.
There are a few criteria a
mass market automaker ought to meet.
They are fuel efficiency, resale
value, proximity of service stations
and the affordability of parts
and low servicing costs.
I think first thing is price.
We are a country with a
very low per capita income.
Indians are very price sensitive.
But price is not the only factor.
So now the customer also needs
some more value, for example, with
styling elements. And then, I think,
the consumer also wants a global
brand. They want a
brand which is aspirational.
The consumer wants an overall combination of
all P's, you know it may
be product, it may be
price, it may be positioning.
Which makes the things
quite complicated for OEMs.
These might seem pretty attainable,
but many automakers have
struggled to meet these
in the country.
There are a couple of companies who
have managed to crack that code
and there are several more with shares
of the market ranging in size
from small to smaller.
By far, the most successful automaker
in India is the Japanese firm
Suzuki, which alone owns
half the Indian market.
Suzuki has enjoyed something of
a first mover advantage.
It was the first major automaker to
enter India, and it did so
through a joint venture
with Indian manufacturer Maruti.
Suzuki also specializes in highly
fuel efficient vehicles, which are
extremely important in
the Indian market.
After Suzuki, Korean maker Hyundai is
the second largest with 16
percent of the Indian market.
After that, Indian, Japanese and Korean
makers such as Honda, Tata,
Kia and Mahindra all more or less
have equal degrees of market share.
Kia in particular, is a relatively
late coming brand that has been
able to succeed in India.
I think an excellent example is
Kia Motors which recently entered, it
was a new brand and
they gave a great proposition.
They were in an SUV segment and
I think suddenly right from the month
one, we saw a great success
for this OEM, in India.
Then the remaining 10 percent of the
market is made up of others such
as Ford, Renault, BMW and Nissan.
Early on, GM entered the India market
with its Opel brand, a mass
market brand GM had
owned in Europe.
While Opel cars tended to be
affordable, they failed to resonate with
Indian buyers.
I think later on they realized that's
not a brand which is really
going to work well in India because
that was not a value proposition
which they were offering
to their customers.
But then GM introduced its Chevrolet
brand to the country, which
brought it more success.
It was a great success.
They launched a few great
products like Chevrolet Cruze Chevrolet
Beat. They had that start which
they were really looking forward.
Despite these efforts, the automaker had
trouble taking share in the
Indian market. It was the first
automaker to introduce a diesel fuel
powered car of its size.
At the time, the Chevrolet beat
was the smallest diesel powered car
customers could buy in India.
It was a strong proposition and
benefited from a government subsidy
on diesel engines.
But in the end, the
diesel Beat had few takers.
The company may also have made a
misstep by trying to introduce a
low-cost vehicle GM manufactured with
its Chinese partner SAIC called
the Chevrolet Sail.
Their plan got derailed with the
introduction of Sail because I think
they underestimated the consumer aspiration
and then, I think, the
decline started. GM also fell victim
to a kind of self-reinforcing
cycle. One challenge it struggled with
was the lack of an adequate
dealer and servicing network.
More premium brands such as Mercedes
and BMW often attract customers
with the means to travel
further for service and sales.
But, mass market brands such as
GM's Chevrolet are targeting middle
class buyers who value convenience.
Dealerships in India often sell a
single brand so GM's low sales
volumes meant a single dealer might sell
only a handful of cars in a
month and risk taking losses on
the costs of running the business.
In the end, such low market share
made it difficult for GM to justify
maintaining a presence
in the country.
The automaker officially stopped selling
cars in India on December
31, 2017.
GM told CNBC it explored many
options for its India business, but
ultimately withdrew after it
determined the increased investment
originally planned for the country would
not deliver the returns of
other global opportunities.
It continues to operate services
for existing Chevrolet customers in
the country. In September, the
automaker entered a long-term
partnership with Tata Consultancy Services,
which will do engineering
design for GM vehicles meant
for markets around the world.
The move out of India was part
of a larger pullback GM has been
making around the world as
it restructures its business.
We're seeing other automakers follow
suit as they're pruning.
They're pruning the dead branches and
focusing on where they can be
strong. For GM, this is a huge shift
because GM of old used to be all
things to everyone everywhere.
And, it has now decided that
is not the proper strategy.
The automaker told CNBC if it doesn't
see a clear path to leadership
and long term sustained profits in
a particular market, it will look
at opportunities to focus its resources
on areas that will lead to
the greatest results. It added that this
is the same approach it has
taken elsewhere.
The automaker also sold its
European operations to French carmaker
PSA in 2017.
At the time it pulled out of India
GM had two factories there, one in
the Gujarati city of Halol
and another in Talegaon.
The Halol plant was acquired by
MG Motor, the once famed British
brand now owned by Chinese
automaker SAIC Motor Corporation.
GM has a joint venture with
SAIC to produce cars in China.
Reports surfaced in November 2019 that
SAIC is also in talks to
acquire GM's Talegaon plant, along
with fellow Chinese automaker
Great Wall. GM told CNBC it
is exploring strategic options for the
plant. The move out of India was
a retreat for GM and for American
auto industry. Ford is starting
to do the same.
It's trimming some
of its offerings.
Global economy and global auto
market is slowing some.
Certainly true here in the
US, it's true in China.
There's just not enough money to
go around to every single market,
too every single vehicle line.
Look at Daimler and BMW,
they've announced major employee cuts.
But in some ways it might
have been a shrewd move.
The other thing that is happening
in the market that has never
happened before is we are on the
verge of massive disruption of the
industry. You know, we're going to
have a future of electric
vehicles, autonomous vehicles and new
ways to acquire personal
transportation and now
mobility service.
There's all kinds of things.
Nobody knows when that's going to happen
or how it's going to happen,
but it's requiring a
lot of investment.
Companies like GM just can't keep putting
a ton of money into the
future as well as a ton
of money in today's stuff.
While analysts do expect the
Indian automotive market to continue
growing in the foreseeable future, it
did hit a slump in 2019.
Maruti Suzuki sales were growing
until February 2019, but have
slipped every month, year
over year, until October.
Suzuki said in November that the slowing
Indian market was one of the
factors behind the company's falling overall
sales and net income in
its second fiscal quarter.
So I think right now the
market is going through turmoil.
Our economy is struggling and if
we only talk about the automotive
market we are talking about a decline
of minus 14 percent in 2019
calendar year light vehicles.
So obviously this year is the
kind of degrowth happening, which has
not happened in last
two decades, in India.
2020, we are just talking about a
kind of a flat growth but then
going forward, in 2021, '22, '23,
the assumption that our economy
should be back, you know, the
GDP growth rate will start growing
above seven percent. Indian
automotive analysts note the country's
auto industry has to contend
with the relatively recent rise of
mobility services such as ride
hailing. The potential of these
competing technologies is still
unknown, but could affect how
interested in car ownership Indians
remain in the future.
In the end, GM did make some of
the right choices when trying to go
into India. GM was right in
terms of localizing their products
typically for the Indian market, making
it, in line with the taxation
because they were able to save tax.
But, at the end of their day, were
really not able to match with what
the competitors were offering.
If the Indian economy picks back up,
GM may find itself trying to
profitably re-enter the country.
GM's rival Ford, which has been in
India since 1995, said in October
2019 it will create a new
joint venture with Indian manufacturer
Mahindra, which Ford said will help
it develop new products faster
and drive profitable growth.

Which automaker company owns your favorite car brand? You'd be surprised

Vehicle Virals:

Not to disappoint you but most badges you see on your favorite cars are not as transparent as you think they are today
I'll be showing you which automakers own your favorite car brands
My name is Christian, and this is vehicle Virals make sure to subscribe for weekly out of motive content
Let's begin when you think of James Bond, which car brand comes to mind
That's right Aston, Martin today Aston, Martin isn't owned by a larger automaker
But don't think it was always that way it was once under Ford and then sold to a group of investors in
2007 one key investor was Mercedes Benz parent company named leur the tie-in with
Mercedes now gives Aston Martin access to AMG engines for its latest sports cars a sweet deal moving on
BMW for you guys that didn't know it stands for Bay or ish
Motorin work
It's German for barbarian motor works BMW owns two automobile brands
many
Which was relaunched in 2001 and rolls-royce which was acquired in?
2002 you can even see some BMW influences in the rolls-royce
Ghost sedan next one on the list there's a automaker Daimler AG
Ring a bell it probably doesn't but at the same time it probably does because I just mentioned it when I talked about Aston Martin
I know for sure it didn't ring a bell for me when I first did my research its original name was damned ler bends before
transitioned over to the new name damn ler AG in
1998 they own all of Mercedes divisions such as the Benz the AMG and a Maybach
They also homesmart you remember seeing those tiny cars in the road
They could basically pop a u-turn in one lane Daimler. Also owns a truck companies such as Freightliner alright
Let's move on to Fiat that was founded in 1899 it is Italy's largest auto
Manufacturer and also one of the oldest auto makers in the world
They mainly produce railroad engines tractors and airplane engines until
1950 where they then offered a full lineup of cars
Enough with the Boring stuff, which car companies do they control well here
They are a breath Alfa Romeo Maserati and Chrysler which was apart after filing bankruptcy
In 2011 with Chrysler comes all of their brands as well such as Dodge Jeep and Ram
That's right that means the ultra powerful Hellcat is also under Fiat you think that's impressive wait till you see the last
Automaker on this list make sure to watch the whole video the next automaker was actually under Fiat back in the day
That is before ended up separated from its parent company in
2016 ladies and gentlemen Ferrari once known as Fiat crown jewel is now independent and known as a symbol of speed
Luxury and wealth yep
The next car company revolutionized the use of assembly lines for cars its iconic car the Model T
Is widely considered the first massively available automobile any guesses if you guess forward then you're correct?
Ford Onan had major stakes in Land Rover Mazda mercury Aston
Martin just like stated before
Volvo and Jaguar all those brands were either sold or shut down and the only brand they currently own is
Lincoln the next automaker company downsized
Quite a bit after filing for bankruptcy back in 2009 you might have heard a bottom in the news
I mean I couldn't miss them. They were all over the web at the time that is General Motors
Have known as GM the car brands. They currently own are Buick Cadillac Chevrolet GMC
and Holden a brand only
Distributed in Australia this next automaker was known as a new kid on the block back when it was founded in
1948 Honda named after one of the company's founder Soichiro Honda
Sorry about pronounced it wrong
I remember during my teenage years encounter in Honda owners
making fun of Acura owners and vice versa but all it took was to pop open the hood of an Acura Integra to expose the
Honda branding under the hood their reactions
Priceless moving on to Hyundai or Honda whatever you want to call it based in South Korea
I launched his first car in cooperation with Ford in
1968 today hyundai owns a good chunk of kia, it's key competitor
You know what they say if you can't beat them join them the two share many parts among their production such as engine and trans
One interesting move that on the recently did was to branch out its Genesis model to a sub brand of its own
Genesis motors next on the list is Mazda the name originates from our hua
Mazda and Iranian god. That's a cool fact. Isn't it once known as a company that manufactured tools
eventually expanded to automobiles in
1930 the only time I ever had with any other automaker was but Ford owned one third of the company
Later on went on to sell its shares
Which means Mazda is independently owned moving on to one of my favorite automakers of all time?
McLaren a British firm known for building fast sexy sports cars, but hey
That's not all they also run a Formula One team and a division named applied technologies
Which make a unique selection of a product such as bicycles medicine and even solar panels and yes McLaren is?
Independently owned now. Let's talk about Mitsubishi men you might not know but Mitsubishi Corporation
It actually depends largest general trader market. What does general trader marking you ask I'm glad you asked according to Wikipedia
Businesses working with some different type of products which are sold for consumer business or government purposes Mitsubishi became a car maker in
1970 and remain independent for a long time, but now it's controlled by brand not Nissan Alliance talking about right now, Nissan
They actually only 43% of Nissan as many of you guys probably already know Nissan runs his luxury focus division
Infinity before I confirm that this was true
I already had a hunch that they were closely related the same hunch I get when I see
CVS and Walgreens and in Advance Auto Parts in an
Autozone Nissan recently revived Datsun in order to sell economy cars to emerging markets they also own the Romanian car market
Dacia and hold controller stakes in Mitsubishi
Like mentioned previously not really much to say about the following
Automaker company and that is Saab one unique thing is that they specialize in
Aerospace and defense manufacturing as far as automobiles
They're not doing too hot sap isn't quite dead, but it's not doing too
Well the following car maker is a Subaru they doing quite well for themselves
By setting a new annual sales record for ten consecutive years
And if you consider that they are for the most part independent you have to admit. That's quite impressive
I say most part because Toyota owns
16% of Subaru have you ever heard of Tata or Teta?
Not sure which way to say it well
It's a company that currently owns Jaguar and Land Rover that they purchased from Ford back in 2008
according to most haters fame came when it released its Nano vehicle for
$2,500 I mean look at it
What is that banana was originally created to lead India's and middle class away from motorcycles?
Sadly the Nano had many issues and a filter his target by a long shot now. Let's talk about Tesla
There's not really much to say other than it was founded by a group of engineers back in
2003 their cars are currently manufacturing in Fremont
California everybody main independent from any other larger automaker the company recently outlines plans for a new semi truck a super-fast
roadster and a new crossover called numata why moving on to Toyota one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world
They own
lexus
Dot 2 and Hino Motors, you might also remember the sign brand that was also under the Toyota umbrella
I remember the boxy car the xB and a scion tc sign cars were targeted towards the youth
but after slow sales Toyota ultimately decided to close the blinds for the sign in
2016 the following Swedish automaker was founded back in
1927 known as Volvo it was purchased by a Chinese firm from Ford
Following a huge time investment and money to update the Volvo lineup and for the most part it paid off
Now Bulbul stands as an independent automaker company
I might have just saved the best for last
And this next automaker has to have one of the best lineup some brands under their belt it blows me away
Just thinking about it the automaker is Volkswagen and for those that didn't know it means people's car in German
They quickly rose to the top. Thanks to its beetle selling well worldwide
It is also one of the biggest auto makers in the world ready to be blown away
Let's go they own howdy
Bentley Porsche Bugatti, Lamborghini
C skids man trucks Scania and Ducati
Impressive all guys that will say
I hope you guys found that entertaining and informative at the same time if you liked the video make sure and hit that like button
And I want to know
Comment below, what's your favorite car and don't forget to subscribe? I have new automotive content every single week
Hope you all have a good day. I'll see you guys next time

Why General Motors Left Europe

CNBC:

In 2017, General Motors,
the largest U.S.
automaker with brands known around the
world made perhaps one of
its boldest moves in its history.
It sold its European Opel and
Vauxhall brands to the French
automaker PSA known for brands
such as Peugeot and Citroen.
It was the end of an era
for GM which had first ventured into
Europe nearly 90 years before.
It also marked the end of nearly
two decades of losses for the
brands under GM's stewardship.
GM executives said the deal
would unload a difficult and
struggling business and allow the company
to focus on its more
profitable North American market and free
up cash to make needed
investments in new technologies such
as electric cars and
autonomous driving.
But the move came with risks.
The European new car market is about
as large as that of the
United States and leaving it would
not only hit GM's volume but
also increase its exposure to the
ups and downs of the U.S.
auto market.
The sale of the unit
also racked up huge costs.
GM took a $3.9 billion
loss in 2017 owing
mostly to the $6.2
billion in costs it had to
shell out for the sale.
So why did GM leave?
Did the automaker simply
screw up or fail?
Was it wise to get out of Europe?
And what does it mean for GM's
future and the future of the auto
industry?
The decision actually says a lot about
how difficult it is to be a
global automaker today and the
sometimes subtle ways markets
around the world increasingly favor
local players who can tailor
their products to
specific markets.
In the end GM may have failed
in Europe in part because it just
isn't European.
The numbers show General Motors was
having a rough time on the
continent in the nine years or
so before the divestiture of GM's
European business.
It bled money at the EBIT line
every single year for a total of
about $14 billion in
losses on $208.4
billion dollars in sales it's nine
year weighted loss of 6.9
percent.
EBIT stands for earnings before interest
and taxation and is the
metric GM uses to report
the money its international business
divisions make.
Its worst year during that time
was during the financial crisis in
2009.
Where GM incurred a 15
percent loss of $3.6
billion dollars.
The best year in that period was
2016 where it still had a 1.4
percent loss totaling
about $257 million.
Now that sounds like an improvement
and in absolute terms it was.
But consider that over the same
nine year period GM turned a
profit in North America of
$28 billion on $823.7
point billion in sales.
That's a nine year
weighted gain of 3.4
percent an automaker generally tries to
target an 8 percent EBIT
for any given region and for
the world as a whole.
GM's rival, Ford for example has an
8 percent EBIT target for its
European business.
The automobiles never really
sold well with consumers.
And one of the reasons they
weren't able to achieve profitability
is because what they did sell
were primarily passenger cars and
not the higher margin trucks and SUVs
that they saw a lot of in
the U.S..
So that's that's a
big part of it.
There's also a lot of headwinds that
they faced on the cost side
of the equation with with the
cost of labor, unions, and
also more stringent regulation
particularly from an emissions
standpoint.
So a lot of those reasons are
why they had such mixed results and
from a market share perspective when
they pulled out they were
they only had about 6
to 7 percent market share.
So it wasn't really a
dominant market for them.
And GM was losing ground
during that time to competitors.
Consider that the automaker
had a 9.3
percent share of the European car
market in 2008 but that fell
below 7 percent in 2014 and stayed
there for two years and then
fell again to around
6 percent in 2016.
Meanwhile European competitors seem
to be faring better.
And once GM sold off its
European business its earnings shot up.
The automaker earned a
global EBIT of 9.9
percent in 2017 and 8.4
percent in 2018.
But why was GM struggling in Europe
when it does so well in the
United States and is
even leading U.S.
automakers in China a market that is
by no means easy to do
business in.
One reason is that
Europe is pretty unique.
To be fair to GM it is not
the only automaker that has had trouble
there.
American cars have never been an
easy sell in the European market.
Ford for example has dialed back
its presence in the region.
Gm is not alone
in their struggles.
You see Ford pulling out of
Europe and American cars just never
have really sold very well there.
That market is really dominated
by the big three German
manufacturers and others.
But it's also a
fairly fragmented market.
So they just really were never
able to compete and consumers just
didn't really like their cars.
There were larger economic and political
factors such as the great
recession and tightening emissions
regulations that made it
tougher for companies to
do business there.
Another factor is the
distinctiveness of European tastes.
At the time GM CEO Mary Barra
said 80 percent of the vehicles in
the Opel portfolio didn't share
parts or platforms with those
sold in any of
GM's other markets.
When we look at the portfolio
going forward from a vehicle
perspective or a portfolio perspective
only 20 percent of the
portfolio overlapped with the rest
of the General Motors
portfolio.
So we think the real opportunity
for PSA is to leverage that
Europe specific scale.
That put the company
in a tough position.
Major automakers generally want to
build flexible platforms and
parts that can be used in
a variety of models in different
markets.
This helps them keep costs low
and achieve those highly desired
economies of scale.
There are forces however that make
it difficult to share parts and
platforms.
Automobiles tend to be highly regulated
products and many of the
markets where they are sold
and the regulations can vary
sometimes widely from
region to region.
One example of this is
fuel economy and emissions regulations.
Both the U.S.
and Europe have them.
But they tend to differ and
producing cars to meet each
regulatory regime costs
more money.
It requires that the company engineer
and test every vehicle to
fit every set of rules.
But many industry observers say GM
made a number of missteps over
the years that contributed to
the brand's struggles in Europe.
Opel and Vauxhall are often thought
of as sensible cars but they
do not have the glamorous
reputations of more premium brands.
GM typically sold Opels and Vauxhalls
in high volumes usually to
keep costs low.
But simple supply and demand shows this
has a way of driving down
prices.
And while GM produced a lot of cars
it was hard for it to make
money on the cars it made.
It also introduced its Chevrolet brand
into Europe which had the
effect of undermining sales
of Opel and Vauxhall.
Both brands already had
difficulty distinguishing themselves in
Europe's competitive landscape and
selling highly similar
Chevrolets right next to
them further confused buyers.
Furthermore the company didn't
have the right products.
Opels portfolio was heavily
weighted toward traditional passenger
cars such as
subcompact and sedans.
And the brand missed the boom
in crossover and small SUV sales.
At the end of the day Europe is
a large market but it is a mature
one and does not offer the
opportunities for growth companies can
find in China and other emerging
markets or even the kinds of
opportunity in the U.S..
A lot of it is really reflection
of the economic growth in Europe
relative to China.
You have one of the fastest growing
countries in the world and the
U.S. which is growing stronger a
lot stronger than Europe now.
You know if you look at European
GDP over the last several years
just has really lagged the
North American market in Asia.
China is now the world's largest
car market with 28 million new
vehicles sold in 2018.
That number is likely to continue
to rise as the auto market
continues to grow.
In North America particularly the
United States, is becoming an
ever more profitable market as
consumers turn toward higher
priced crossovers, SUVs,
and pickup trucks.
So GM cut the cord in Europe and
said it would use the money to
focus more on its strong business
selling trucks in North America
while sinking piles of cash
into its investments in electric
vehicles and self-driving cars.
Those aren't cheap aspirations and it may
be a long time before GM
or anyone else makes
money off them.
Meanwhile GM's North American sales
have grown pretty consistently
from 56 billion dollars in 2009
to 113 billion dollars in 2018
according to FactSet.
Meanwhile it was able to sell the
business to Peugeot and a large
automaker that has been successful
focusing on Europe but who
also has plans to
return to the U.S..
They've been very open over the
last few months about their
interest in specifically
Fiat Chrysler.
Which I think they view as a
opportunity to gain a foothold in the
North American market and obviously
you know that company has
said some very well-received brands with
Jeep and a lot of the
new products that
they're introducing.
In a comment to
CNBC, General Motors
said:
Peugeot surprised the industry by saying
it had restored the Opel
and Vauxhall brands to profitability in
part by cutting costs and
introducing new more
profitable models.

HISTORY 🚗 U.S. Automotive Industry (Automobiles Documentary)((ENGINEERING AMERICAN CARS & TRUCKS))

HOT ROD 100:

HOT ROD 100 Presents...
History of the U.S. Automotive Industry

Why GM Doesn't Make Good Cars Anymore, What Went Wrong

Scotty Kilmer:

rev up your engines, zack says
Scotty my old family are GM fans, do you
know when GM car started to make them
poorly, my guess would be when they went
bankrupt around 2009, well they started
to make them poorly long before that, even
in the early 2000s they started to make
a lot cheaper stuff, I don't know how
true it is, but I talked to an engineer
and an engineer told me one time that GM
and Ford were going neck to neck and
people thought, Oh GM's are made better
than the Fords and then they did a
little research and GM found out that
they were spending 20% more building
their vehicles and that's why they were
better vehicles back decades ago, well
according to the engineer that I was
talking to, GM looked at and said gee
were spending 20% money more than Ford
building our cars, let's make them
cheaper, so they did and then the quality
went down, I know if it's true or not but
an engineer told me that, but they
have been going but down since the
early 2000s, it's just the nature of the
beast with corporations these days, they
want to make a profit and they want to
make things as cheap as they can and pay
people that make them as little as
possible, so they make more profit for
the corporation that's the way that
things go and sometimes it takes the
wrong turn like GM did and make products
that you don't hold up like they used to,
I learned to drive on a Chevrolet
Biscayne the thing was like a tank it had
a
302 v8 in it and that thing just ran
forever but not the new ones their not made
that wa,y no Oberto says Scotty
I am seriously considering buying the
2019 Land Cruisers, do you consider it to
be
the best quality built SUV I'm aware of
the gas mileage, yes they are for that
kind of a vehicle if you're willing to
spend that kind of money and get that
kind of low gas mileage, they are well build
vehicles my customers with them are all
pretty well happy with them, other than
the horrible gas mileage and if you're
willing to spend that kind of money, they
can last a long time, I got customers
with those thing that have three hundred and
fifty thousand miles on them and they're
still running strong, yeah if you don't
mind spending that kind of money go
right ahead, me I'm too cheap I'd never
spend that kind of money, Rambo ask
Scotty what do you think about me buying
a 2004 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited
all wheel drive with 140,000 miles straight
6 for six grand
from my uncle as a first car,
well first of all some uncle he should
give you the car, now I'm not a Jeep fan
by any stretch of the imagination but
back in 2004 they were building much
better ones than they are today now that
Fiat owns them, that straight six-cylinder
engine can last forever I've seen those
things go 400,000 miles, good engines the
transmission that's an OK transmission
it's not great but it's not totally
horrible, it's a 15 year old Jeep try to
get it for a little bit less than $6,000
see if you can barter it, they can be fun
vehicles to drive around, realize they're
somewhat gas hogs because jeeps are
trucks their high up in the air, their not
aerodynamic or anything but it can be a
fun thing to drive, just try to get it a
little bit of lower, Scotty my SUV keeps
going out of alignment I had new shocks
replaced and no one seems to get the
alignment right, any ideas what as to what
it can be,
here's the thing, front end alignment
work we're talking about thousands of an
inches here thousands of an inches there
it's gotta be a pro who knows what he's
doing, so your best to find a
front-end shop that's all they do, here
in Houston I use cotton brothers front
end, they know what they're doing they
can fix any alignment problem, now the
second thing is, modern vehicles
especially the SUVs they're not like
vehicles when I was young, when I was
young they had all kinds of adjustments
there were like six different
adjustments you could do, today a lot of
times the only adjustment you can do is
the caster and the camber that's it
you can't do anything else, so it might
be that the alignment is off because the
struts bent or an a frame is bent, that's
why you have to start with a really good
front end guy, who knows what he's doing
and does good work you have to start
there, because otherwise all bets are off,
Devon says Scotty and I got a 93
3 liter 4runner, it does 16-17 mile per gallon
on the highway but does five to six in the
city any reason why, I live in Fresno
with hardly any traffic on the streets
Thanks, okay first of all, when you're
driving it in town does it get into top
gear, if you drive it really slow and the
transmission doesn't shift into top
gear, you're gonna get crappy gas mileage
like that, 16 to 17 is what those things
get on a highway, so it's working
normally at highway speed, so I'm
assuming it's not shifting into the top
gear when you're driving in town, go 35
miles an hour count the shifts as it shifts
and it should be into the top gear
if it isn't, you got a problem with your
transmission not shifting into gear
that's about the only thing that would
make sense cuz if you have any other
problem with the vehicle, it's gonna get
horrible gas mileage on the highway too,
the only difference is, it's shifting
into the higher gear on the highway maybe
it's not doing it in town, you should
still get at least 12 or something in
the city not 5 or 6, so if you never want
to miss another one of my new car repair
videos, remember to ring that Bell!

Preston GM Corporate

prestongm:

Who ACTUALLY Made Your Car? | WheelHouse

Donut Media:

- Your favorite car company might be owned
by a different car company,
and you don't even know it.
(upbeat music)
Jeep? Owned.
Acura? Owned.
Chevy? Come on, owned.
So the question is, who owns who?
Or is it whom?
Most every car company nowadays
is owned by a bigger corporation.
In fact, only 15
corporations around the world
own most of the cars manufactured today.
We're seeing fewer and fewer
independent car manufacturers,
and that can be both good and bad.
Let's start with one of
the biggest companies
out there, General Motors.
Nowadays, they rake in more
than $145 billion annually.
But GM wasn't always so successful.
They started as a holding company,
which, in its simplest form,
is a company that buys other companies.
Their first acquisition
was Buick back in 1907.
And soon after, they acquired Oldsmobile,
Cadillac, and the Rapid
Motor Vehicle Company,
which later became GMC.
In 1918, they acquired Chevrolet,
a brand that would grow to become one of
GM's biggest breadwinners.
It's not just American brands though.
GM also owns Chinese manufacturers
Wuling, Baojun, and Jiefang,
Just a disclaimer,
there's gonna be a lot more Chinese names,
and I'm probably gonna butcher those too.
This show ain't vegan cause
I'm butchering everything.
Uh! That's stupid.
Other car companies within the GM family
include Holden, Saab, Opel and Daewoo.
Of those, only Holden and Opel
are still manufacturing cars.
And I should note that Opel
is no longer owned by GM,
but by another group, called PSA.
The PSA group is a French
multinational corporation
that owns Opel, Peugeot,
Citroen, Vauxhall,
and the premium mark DS.
They once owned Chrysler Europe,
which they bought in 1978 for $1.
If given the chance to
buy Chrysler for $1,
I'm not sure I would have
made the same decision.
PSA makes upwards of $75 billion annually,
making them the largest French
automobile manufacturer.
But right below them is Renault.
(upbeat music)
Renault does 58 billion annually,
but they're part of a bigger group
named the
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance,
I love the word alliance.
Although they're not technically a merger,
they kind of operate as one.
Renault has a 43% stake in Nissan,
Nissan has a 15% stake in Renault,
and a 34% stake in Mitsubishi.
This umbrella group is the
parent company of Infiniti,
Datsun, Dacia, AvtoVAZ, Alpina,
and the defunct brand Lada.
All in all, the
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubish Alliance
brings in $190 billion in annual sales,
making them the number 3
top auto manufacturing group
in the world.
So what does this all
mean for the consumer?
Well, big car companies make it possible
to buy a car for cheap.
Right now, you can buy a Nissan Versa
for $13,000 brand new.
But, it probably cost Nissan
hundreds of millions of dollars
to develop the dang thing.
A car company that's just
starting to get off the ground
can't afford to sell a car that cost them
hundreds of millions of
dollars for that cheap.
But Nissan can.
The profit margin on
economy cars is razor thin,
but Nissan sells millions
of Versas to make up for it.
It's also easier to mass produce parts
that can be installed in
many different models,
versus developing a
car from the ground up.
You've probably heard of a car company
going to their parts bin, right?
One downside of this is that cars can
all start looking the same,
or at least feeling the same.
Using Nissan as an example,
the GTR, a $200,000 supercar,
might share parts with much,
much cheaper cars in their lineup.
Chrysler merged with Italian
car manufacturer Fiat
back in 2014 to form Fiat
Chrysler Automobiles, or FCA.
The merger had been
underway since Chrysler
announced bankruptcy in April of 2009,
but it wasn't finalized
until 5 years later.
This group is responsible
for $111 billion dollars
in sales per year,
and is made up of many
smaller subsidiaries.
Chrysler owns Jeep, Dodge and Ram,
but they're also the parent
company of other defunct brands,
such as AMC, Eagle and Plymouth.
Fiat owns Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia,
and has a 90% stake in Ferrari.
(metal music)
You know that guy in high school
who always had a girlfriend?
That's Chrysler.
But now he's declaring bankruptcy.
But also has a hot Italian wife.
Anyway, the name Daimler
has been around since 1880,
but it wasn't until 1926
that they merged with Benz
to become Daimler Benz,
and started producing the Mercedes Marks.
As a conglomerate,
they're responsible for over
$188 billion in annual sales,
all across the world.
These numbers are getting so
big they're losing meaning.
They own Mercedes Benz, Smart,
and the now defunct Maybech,
along with Chinese
companies Denza and BAIC.
Although they're often
in the same category,
BMW makes around $75
billion less than Mercedes,
coming in at just under
$113 billion a year.
Wow, BMW, you suck.
Bayerische Motoren Werke owns
Mini as well as Rolls Royce,
and I'm pretty sure I
butchered that name too.
(upbeat music)
Toyota's another company
that's got their hands
in a bunch of different cookie jars.
They took in almost
$261 billion last year,
with their brands Lexus, Hino Motors,
Daihatsu, three more Chinese companies,
as well as the defunct Scion brand.
They also own a 5.9% stake in Isuzu,
and 16.6% of Suburu.
And that's how you get
nearly identical cars,
like the Toyota 86, the Suburu
BRZ, and the Scion FR-S.
They share a lot of the same parts,
and are essentially the same car.
Surprisingly, Toyota's largest
Japanese competitor, Honda,
makes about half as much as
they do, at $139 billion,
with Acura being the only
other car badge they own.
South Korea based Hyundai
owns Kia and Genesis,
and pulls in almost $86 billion a year.
The Tata Group, based
out of Mumbai, India,
pulls in a cool $100 billion in sales
through their brands Jaguar, Land Rover,
and of course, Tata.
The only Chinese group that
makes this list is Geely.
The group has been around since 1986,
and really only entered the
automobile market in 1997,
making them one of the newest,
and most successful, car
manufacturers to date.
This group owns Chinese
brands Geely ad Lynk,
as well as Lotus, Volvo, and Proton.
They bring in about $15
billion a year in sales.
The only two brands on this
list that are independent
are Suzuki, based out of Japan,
and relative newcomer Tesla.
They do about $34 billion
and $12 billion in sales respectively.
Suzuki has been around for over 100 years,
and their profits rely heavily
on their motorcycles and ATV sales.
Tesla's only been around since 2003,
so how are they able to
roll with the big boys?
Tesla's business strategy was to sell
their high-end, electric cars,
to a more affluent crowd at first.
More expensive vehicles have
a much higher profit margin,
so less sales are needed
to make the money back.
Then, when they become
more financially stable,
they were able to release
models that were more affordable
to a broader consumer base.
So the sales of higher end models
bankrolled the RnD for their
people's car, the Model 3.
Basically, it was the
opposite business model
for Volkswagen, which
happens to be the number one
highest producing conglomerate
in the entire automotive industry.
(car tires squeal)
The Volkswagen group is
made up of Audi, Porsche,
Volkswagen, Bentley, Bugatti,
Seat, Skoda and Lamborghini,
as well as other smaller subsidiaries.
They raked in over $278 billion in 2018,
and employ over 630,000 people
in 153 countries worldwide.
They produced 10,083,000
vehicles last year.
Sure, your favorite brand might be owned
by some bigger, most
likely more boring brand,
but don't let that discourage you.
Because without that helping hand,
your favorite rides might
not be around at all.
Hey, a big thanks to Keeps
for sponsoring this episode of WheelHouse.
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Hey, thanks for watching WheelHouse,
hit this yellow subscribe
button right here,
to subscribe to Donut,
as well as hitting that like button,
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I know it's a lot to ask of you,
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We've got OG Donut merch
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how cool is that? Be nice,
I'll see you next time.

Why GM And Ford Are Worried About RAM

CNBC:

American automakers take their
trucks extremely seriously.
And the ongoing battles for dominance
among the Detroit three are
often called the "Truck wars".
General Motors, the largest U.S.
automaker overall, sells the most trucks,
if you count full-size and
mid-sized pickups.
Ford F-Series is the best
selling line of full-size trucks.
But, third place challenger Ram has
made its own waves in recent
years, snagging major industry awards
and stealing market share from
rivals. Ram is killing it.
U.S. sales of Fiat Chrysler's truck
brand have roughly tripled in the
last decade, and the brand seems to
be taking food out of its rivals
mouths. After taking the helm
of Fiat Chrysler in 2018,
new CEO Mike Manley said he
wanted to make Ram the second-best
selling full-size pickup brand
in the U.S.
In the first three
quarters of 2019,
Ram surprised the automotive world by
passing Chevrolet in sales, and
some think Ram could very well
stay in second place, fulfilling
Manley's goal. To be fair, others are
quick to note the timing has
been in Ram's favor and that the
game is too early to call.
What is certain is that this upstart
is now posing a more serious
threat to its rivals
than ever before.
It's a stunning rise for a brand
some in the industry thought Fiat
Chrysler was foolish to create in
the first place. The
Ram brand was once actually part of
Dodge, but the two were separated
as Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy under
the oversight of the late
Sergio Marchionne.
The idea was that the split would
allow Ram to focus exclusively on
trucks while permitting Dodge to
focus on developing performance
vehicles, including its popular Challenger
and Charger, as well as
sport utility vehicles and
its long-running Caravan minivan.
Some in the industry questioned the
wisdom of spinning the Ram brand
out at a time when cross-town
rival General Motors was axing several
of its own brands.
First of all, the Ram name has
a long history with Dodge itself.
The company first started using the Ram
logo on its cars in 1932, and
it was still used on Dodge models
until FCA began rolling out new
logos sometime after the
brand's split in 2009.
As one of the four American
full-sized pickup brands, Rams sold
reasonably well, but were often
known as a more affordable
alternative to those offered
by GM and Ford.
The audio you're about to hear
is distorted due to recording issues.
They were less expensive, the
interiors weren't that great.
They were pretty basic.
It wasn't the kind of truck that
GM or Ford had on the road.
Ram simply could not compete with
the capability offered by rivals.
But after Fiat took over and
the company began to emerge from
bankruptcy, Ram came out swinging.
In 2010, GM and Ford were roughly
tied and pickup market share, each
with just over 38 percent with Ram
solidly in third place at just
14.6 percent.
But, over the next eight years, Ram
grew its share of the market to
more than 22 percent, while Ford lost
one percent of its share and GM
lost nearly five.
To be fair, Japanese import brand Toyota
also lost some share at that
time from 6.8
percent of the market to 4.9
percent and fellow Japanese maker Nissan
gained a sliver of market
share. But Ram is now threatening
to displace Chevrolet as these
second best selling full-size pickup
brand in the United States.
So how did it do this?
By offering something different,
say industry analysts?
So I think Ram's idea then was
OK, then maybe, our strategy should be
to build a really, really
good all around truck.
Let's make it comfortable.
Let's make the interiors nice.
Let's make the ride
quality really good.
Two areas where Ram really
shines our interiors and technology.
The interior of the truck
is just unbelievably great.
The technology is unbelievable.
They've got the biggest screen,
it looks like a laptop.
Ram made a bet that seems
particularly suited to the times.
Owners are more accepting of technology
than they ever have before.
There's examples of new technology being
put into pickup trucks that
kind of fell flat. General Motors
had a four-wheel steering system
for their pickup trucks,
which was terrific.
But the problem was that it was
an expensive option, and at that
time, pickup truck owners, their feedback
was, I already know how to
move my truck. I already
know how to tow.
I already know how
to do this stuff.
I don't need to spend the man's
money that you're asking to have this
technology help me do that.
But times have changed.
Now we have buyers of every demographic
that are far more willing to
let technology help them do things.
And as a result, the big screen in
the Ram has drawn a lot of
attention. As a result, some of
the technology that General Motors
has brought it to their Chevrolet and
to the GMC, there's a lot more
cameras on board.
There's ways to save your towing
of your trailer information to your
truck so that if you have three
trailers, every time you hook it up,
you just call up that information and
you don't have to reset it.
There's lots of things in both of
those trucks that make it easier to
work with them. And the Ram got
out into the market a little bit
earlier. One feature in the 2019 Ram
1500 truck that has had the
automotive world buzzing is the large
12 inch touchscreen in the
center of the console.
Ram boasted that the screen was the
largest found in any truck in its
class. If you asked a pickup truck
owner, before they had the big
screen in the Ram if they wanted
a big screen, they'd probably said,
no. I don't want that.
I don't need that. I
don't need to do that.
But now that it's there,
they're reacting to it strongly.
FCA's new strategy was well-timed.
The pickup market has changed over
the last decade as truck sales
have risen. Along with the boom
in sport, utilities and crossovers,
pickup trucks have become popular options
for drivers who might have
a wider range of uses in
mind then in previous eras.
For instance, there has been a rise
in the portion of four seat and
four door models in
the pickup market.
Ram said more than 50 percent
of its pickups are "family trucks".
FCA has also used a tactic
that some industry observers say has
contributed to the brand's sales success
- selling an outgoing model
along a newly redesigned one,
typically at a lower price.
Ram's rise is partly notable
because pickup truck buyers have
historically been considered among the
most brand-loyal in the
automotive market.
Ford buyers typically don't buy GM
trucks, and just the opposite, GM
buyers typically don't buy Ford
trucks, but what's interesting is
either one of those buyers
will consider a Ram truck.
Dealer
Don "K" Kaltschmidt, who sells both
Chevrolet and Ram and owns
products from both GM and Fiat Chrysler,
said that in some ways Ram
does outdo the Chevrolets, but he
thinks it isn't over yet.
The GM truck product is very,
very strong here for good reason.
It is important to understand the
timing has also worked in Ram's
favor. The Ram went into production
roughly eight months before the
Chevrolet product did.
So, there was a bit of a head
start and sort of building it and
having it online and having
it available for the dealerships.
Another element is that Ram has
kept the previous generation of
production longer than
Chevrolet has.
A spokesman for General Motors told
CNBC, the launch of our Chevrolet
Silverado has gone exceptionally well
and combined with the GMC
Sierra, we are quite pleased with
the quality of our market share.
As of November 2019, Ford said
its F-Series lineup outsold Ram by
225,000 trucks for the year, a lead
the company expected to widen by
the end of 2019,
a spokesman told CNBC.
Ford has so far been the best selling
line of pickups in the US for
the last 42 years.
The "Blue Oval" has also been
hyping its upcoming hybrid and fully
electric versions of the F-series.
Electric vehicles are important and
they're happening and they're
coming, but they're
also coming slowly.
That's kind of
important to remember.
Even as Ford and GM are
talking and start talking about electric
pickup trucks, once they're here, the
sales ramp up is probably going
to be a pretty slow.
Pickup truck battles are fierce in
ways that fights in other segments
are not. You get excited about a
pickup truck because it either helps
you feed your family,
or you're into horses.
It's an enabler to do something
that you truly care about.
And, that makes it much more
important emotionally than I'm going
back and forth to work and
it's just a mode of transportation.
There are also a huge
source of profits for automakers.
So industry watchers aren't expecting this
one to be over anytime
soon. If you think about building a
small car and you need so
much amount of steel or so much
amount of wiring harness, or so much
amount of leather or cloth to cover
the seats and you can charge
$20,000 for a small car.
You need more of all of those
materials to build a pickup truck, but
you're charging four
times the cost.
It's an interesting element
of the market too.
Smaller products are not as
profitable, as larger products.

Top 5 best Chinese Car Companies

China Matters:

Today we are talking about the top 5 biggest
Chinese car companies.
Globally, China is the largest automotive
market, both in terms of demand and supply.
In 2017, China produced almost 25 million
passenger cars and around four million commercial
vehicles.
China is expected to also drive demand in
the automotive market, with close to 35 million
expected vehicle sales in 2020.
That is a lot of vehicles, so let’s talk
about the biggest car companies in China.
Starting off our list is the FAW Group.
On July 13, 1956, under the guidance of the
China's Central Government and with assistance
from the former Soviet Union, construction
of China's first automotive production base
was completed.
Known at that time as First Automotive Works
(FAW) and now as First Automotive Group Corporation,
this sprawling car and truck manufacturer
headquartered in Changchun, China, firmly
launched the country into the automotive age.
After fifty years of development and refinement,
tremendous changes have taken place within
FAW.
In stark contrast to the early days of producing
a single model of medium truck, FAW now produces
hundreds of models of light, medium, and heavy
trucks for every vocation.
In the late 1950's, FAW quickly responded
to market demand and commenced automotive
and bus production, soon making itself the
leading producer of buses and luxury tourist
coaches in China.
After surpassing the one-million-unit annual
sales figure in 2005, FAW Group Corporation
has set exciting new goals as the company
makes use of the latest information technologies
to keep their people and customers connected
worldwide, thus ensuring an important competitive
edge in the marketplace.
This company has been a major player for many
years!
Moving on to number 4 on our list.
Dongfeng Motor Corporation (its predecessor,
the Second Automotive Works) was established
in 1969 and it is one of the largest state-owned
enterprises in China.
Its headquarter is now located in Wuhan, with
its major production facilities distributed
in Shiyan, Xiangyang, Wuhan and Guangzhou.
Dongfeng Motor has a wide business scope;
they are engaged in the manufacturing, sales
and R&D of commercial vehicles, passenger
vehicles, auto parts and components, vehicle
manufacturing equipment and other auto related
businesses.
In 2011, Dongfeng’s own vehicle brand sales
passed the one-million-unit threshold representing
a growth rate 10 points higher than the industry
average.
In 2012, Dongfeng’s own vehicle brands achieved
an aggregate sale of 1,121,000 units ranking
among the top three that year.
Speeding on to number 3 on our list is the
Great Wall Motor Company Limited.
As China’s largest SUV and pickup manufacturer,
Great Wall Motors owns two brands--Haval and
Great Wall which cover three categories: SUV,
passenger cars, and pickups.
With over 30 holding subsidiaries, more than
60,000 employees, and four vehicle manufacturing
bases, Great Wall is one of the largest automotive
companies in China.
Great Wall started selling in Europe in 2006,
offering small vans and SUVs.
Great Wall products were first available in
the Australian market in 2009.
European sales continued with the 2011 opening
of a factory in Bulgaria that assembles three
different models from knock-down kits.
And in 2016, Great Wall set a historic sales
record of 1,074,471 cars worldwide, an increase
of 26% compared to 2015.
In 2018, it plans to sell even more vehicles
making it one of the top Chinese car companies.
Our next company is relatively new to the
market, but that hasn’t stopped them from
accelerating to number 2 on our list.
Geely Auto Group is a leading automobile manufacturer
based in Hangzhou, China and was founded in
1997 as a subsidiary of Zhejiang Geely Holding
Group.
The company employs more than 50,000 people,
operates 12 vehicle manufacturing plants,
9 powertrain plants, 6 knockdown kit plants,
and manufactures vehicles under the Geely
Auto brand.
Geely vehicles are sold through a network
of over 850 dealerships in China and some
350 sales and service outlets in overseas
markets.
The company, listed on the Hong Kong stock
exchange, saw its sales volume increase to
765,000 units in 2016.
In 2017, Geely Auto Group sold over 1,247,000
units, a major increase from 2016.
The success has prompted Geely to set its
2018 sales target to 1.58 million units.
Finally, on our list is a company that has
dominated the Chinese car industry for many
years.
SAIC Motor Corporation Limited (SAIC Motor)
is the largest auto company on China's A-share
market.
SAIC Motor's business covers research, production
and sales of both passenger cars and commercial
vehicles.
The company is actively promoting new energy
vehicles, the commercialization of Internet-connected
cars, and it is exploring intelligent driving
technology.
SAIC Motor's car sales hit 6.93 million units
in 2017, up 6.8 percent on the previous year
and allowing it to keep its leading market
share in China.
In 2016, the company climbed 5 places to rank
41st on the annual Fortune Global 500 list,
thanks to its $113.86 billion in revenues.
It marked the 13th time that the company had
made it onto the list of Fortune magazine's
Global 500.
This company is sitting at the top and they
continue to produce quality vehicles for both
the domestic and overseas markets.
So, there you have it, the top Chinese car
companies.
What do you think of Chinese cars?
Would you buy from one of these Chinese brands?
Leave a comment below and be sure to subscribe
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