Kevin Wale, president of GM China, is doing all he can to distance General Motors’ China operations from the woes of its parent company. At a press conference today, he noted that GM China is financially self-sufficient, won’t require financing from Detroit, and is even planning further expansion, including another joint venture with FAW Group to build commercial vehicles.
When China Economic Review spoke with Wale several weeks ago for our June cover story on China’s auto market, he said much the same thing when asked about the potential impact of a GM bankruptcy. The requirements of print meant that interview had to be edited for space reasons, but here is Wale’s answer in full:
"We operate through separate JVs here. We’re independently funded, we self-fund our investments, so we are having very little impact from what is happening in the US, and we don’t expect it to have much impact going forward. Obviously, there is always some impact, a program that we’re interested in might be delayed six months and things like that [but] we’re actually going through a great product renaissance. We’ve probably got as much product as we can possibly handle in this period of time. But no, we operate as independent joint ventures and we will continue to choose to do that."
The interview as it appeared in the magazine can be found here, and the full article on China’s auto market can be found here.
You must log in to post a comment.