General Motors targets Volkswagen in the Chinese market

General Motors targets Volkswagen in the Chinese market

General Motors might be struggling to maintain their stronghold in their home market of United States. However, they seem to be doing extremely well in one of the fastest growing economies in the world, China. The company might have just done well enough to unseat the German auto major Volkswagen was the top auto manufacturer in the country.

GM has outpaced Volkswagen its European rival as well as overall sales growth in China, which happens to be the third biggest auto market in the world. They posted an impressive growth rate of 35 percent selling close to 665,390 vehicles in 2005. This figure is larger than the combined sales of Volkswagen’s two Chinese joint ventures.

However, market analysts have some doubts over the authenticity of this report considering GM also includes sales from a commercial vehicle tie-up that markets a local brand. Volkswagen does not include sales from their imported segment market in their released figures. GM has however grown tremendously in the last couple of years in this market and is set to dominate the proceedings in the near future as well.

Jia Xinguang, chief analyst with China National Automotive Industry Consulting said in a statement: “GM has a more diversified product portfolio in China. That helped to pump up sales even when market growth was slowing.” The news is good for the company, which is fighting to retain its market image in their domestic market.