SAIC-GM

SAIC General Motors Corporation Limited (commonly known as SAIC-GM; Chinese: 上汽通用汽车) is a joint venture between General Motors Company and SAIC Motor. The company was founded in 1997 as Shanghai General Motors Company Ltd or Shanghai GM (Chinese: 上海通用汽车). Headquartered in Shanghai, the company manufactures and sells Chevrolet, Buick, and Cadillac brand automobiles in mainland China, and exports its cars to several overseas markets.

History

SAIC-GM was founded on June 12, 1997, with 50% investment each from each partner. SAIC-GM began assembling the venture's first vehicle, the Buick Regal, in Shanghai, China in April 1999. This later followed with the Chinese-built Buick GL8 minivan which was a Chinese-exclusive vehicle and was not offered in the United States and Canada.

By 2003, China became the second largest single market for General Motors, selling 201,188 vehicles, an 81.6% percent increase over the previous year. In that year SAIC-GM achieved a 13% market share in mainland China, second only to Volkswagen Group China among foreign carmakers. Sales dropped in 2004 when the company retired the Buick Sail and the release of its replacement, the Chevrolet Sail, was delayed to February 2005, knocking General Motors Shanghai to seventh place in mainland China market share. SAIC-GM market share climbed back to nearly 9.8 percent, placing SAIC-GM among the top three passenger car manufacturers in mainland China.

In June 2004, the Cadillac brand was introduced to China followed by Chevrolet in January 2005.

In May 2005 SAIC-GM completed construction of a new assembly plant, the South Plant, at its facility in eastern Shanghai's Pudong district, more than doubling its annual production capacity to 320,000 vehicles.

SAIC-GM was the top passenger vehicle producer in China in 2006, with sales of 413,400 vehicles. In 2011, SAIC-GM sold 1,200,355 vehicles in the Chinese market. SAIC-GM is the largest joint venture GM has in China.

In February 2010, SAIC acquired an additional 1 percent stake in the joint venture for US$85 million and assistance in securing a US$400 million line of credit to boost SAIC's total share of SAIC-GM to 51%. In April 2012, GM regained 50% control of the joint venture.

Exports

In September 2006, General Motors launched the Chevrolet Corsa Plus in Chile built by SAIC-GM, an export version of the first-generation Chevrolet Sail which in turn is a version of the 4-door Opel Corsa with a 1.6-liter engine. It is the first export market to receive a vehicle manufactured by SAIC-GM.

In 2010, SAIC-GM started exporting the second-generation Chevrolet Sail to Latin American markets, starting with Chile. The third-generation Sail or Aveo, also built by SAIC-GM, was exported to Mexico and the Caribbean since 2017 until 2023, when SAIC-GM-Wuling took over the development and production of the Sail/Aveo.

In 2016, General Motors started importing the Buick Envision into the US from China. The Envision is built by SAIC-GM at its Dongyue Motors plant. Buick expected to sell 40,000 to 50,000 units of the Envision annually in North America.

Since 2020, SAIC-GM also exports the Chevrolet Equinox to Uzbekistan. SAIC-GM also assisted UzAuto Motors, the largest Uzbek automaker formerly known as GM Uzbekistan to produce Chevrolet vehicles such as the Onix.

Facilities

Related businesses

SAIC and GM also operated other joint ventures, including:

Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center Co., Ltd. (PATAC), an engineering services and research and development (R&D) operations centered in China
Shanghai OnStar Telematics Co., Ltd., the operator of OnStar services in China
SAIC General Motors Sales Co., Ltd., a national sales company. GM China has a 49 percent stake and SAIC a 51 percent stake.
SAIC-GMAC Automotive Finance Co., Ltd. (SAIC-GMAC), a financing arm
Shanghai Chengxin Used Car Operation and Management Co., Ltd., a joint venture established by GM China, SAIC-GM and SAIC subsidiary Shanghai Automotive Industry Sales Co. Ltd.
SAIC-GM-Wuling, a separate manufacturing and sales joint venture using Wuling and Baojun brands