Article
--- Nick Reilly, President of GM Asia-Pacific
Despite the economic slowdown, this year’s auto show – the 2009 Auto Shanghai has been a banner year. A total of 1500 global and domestic automakers gathered in the largest ever exhibition hall to court buyers in China, one of the world’s few markets seeing growth in the industry. Troubled auto giants are looking to future sales in China to offset the downturn sweeping sales across the rest of the world. Can the growing China market help salvage struggling auto giants? How long will it take for the global auto market to pick up?
Guest profile
Nick Reilly has been President of GM Asia-Pacific and GM Group Vice President since 2006. He began his GM career back in 1975, holding various high level assignments in Belgium, Switzerland, the UK and the US before taking the current position.
China market under spotlight
Q: This year’s Shanghai auto show is being held under tough financial circumstance globally. What significance does it hold for automakers now compared to past years?
R: I think this show is extremely important. China is the only country where the car industry is still growing. Every manufacturer is here. In the first quarter of this year, the China market was the largest in the world, and so, Shanghai show is very important, of see what is happening, what new cars are going to come out, and so on.
Q: Can this auto show help boost consumer confidence at this point of time?
R: I don’t think the show in itself is going to boost consumer confidence in China. That’s more to do with the stock market, to do with the availability of credit. (Government policies and stimulus.) That’s right. And so, I don’t think the show itself is going to gain confidence, but they can come here and see that the car companies are bringing out new products, and are bringing out very advanced technology and is actually set in China right up there with the car markets that have been around for a long time.
Q: Actually for the past three years, only the Beijing Auto Show in 2006 led to a sales increase. In 2007 in Shanghai and last year in Beijing, sales dropped after the auto show. What’s the reason behind that?
R: I have no idea, that’s probably seasonality in the year. This is not a selling show. So people don’t come here to buy cars, they come to see them. And it’s more to do with the general economic conditions in the country whether the market goes up or down. The show itself is not going to make a huge difference to that.
2009 has not been a good year for auto shows. Japanese automakers Nissan, Mitsubishi and Infiniti, as well as luxury automakers Ferrari, Porsche were no-shows at the Detroit auto show. Although US auto giants did attend the Geneva auto show, their exhibition size shrunk significantly. In the upcoming Tokyo auto show, only half of last year’s automakers agreed to participate. But none of that kept automakers away from Shanghai.
Q: Does it mean that China is increasingly becoming a very important part of your strategy?
R: Yes, I think that’s a very good example of how important that Shanghai show is. Every carmaker is struggling around the world, whether it is in Japan or US or Europe. And China offers an opportunity to maintain momentum, to further increase sales, and we all want to do well here. So everybody’s at the Shanghai show whereas they are not at every other show in the world.
Q: GM China this time chose to participate in the auto show nominally, which means GM China is not sharing the auto show cost with Shanghai GM, so Opel series isn’t here today. Why is that decision made?
R: We have, SAIC asked us to share their hall, and we were happy to do that. We have got Cadillac on display; Saab is a brand that we are disposing on right now, so there’s no point in putting that in the show. But we are showing a lot of technology. For example, on the SAIC stand, earlier this morning was revealed a fuel-cell vehicle, which uses the GM technology. So I think our presence is as good as it has been before.
Terry Johnsson, VP, SH GM
Today, our total sales are, in access of a million units, our global sales are about 8 million units, 8-9 million units and so you can see the relationship. But 8 million units today is just a beginning. What we’ve had happening here in China is extremely successful. And our future is very secure. So not only the vehicles that we are showing today are demonstration of that, but our product programs, our investments for the next several years are completely on track.