Beijing: US auto giant General Motors (GM) will invest a whopping USD 14 billion in China over the next five years and open five new plants to increase sales to nearly five million vehicles in the world's largest car market, its top executive said.
The company's plans for China also includes introducing 60 new models or refreshed vehicles, including nine new models from GM's flagship luxury brand Cadillac, GM CEO Mary Barra said.
Tim Dunne, director of automotive industry analytics for California-based global market research firm JD Power and Associates, said that GM's investment in China is "necessary" for the company going forward.
"This is a substantial investment in China," Dunne was quoted as saying by state-run China Daily.
"GM is still among the forefront in China in terms of annual vehicle sales volume, and when people look at GM [in China] everyone is expecting vehicle sales to grow there.
Competitors in the market are not standing still, so everyone is kind of on an accelerated pace," Dunne said.
GM was one of the first companies to establish an R&D (research and development) centre in China, so developing vehicles specifically for the China market has also given GM a bit of cachet with different entities in China, Dunne said.
"GM and its competitors are investing in manufacturing, distribution, marketing and the R&D aspect, and China is a hyper-competitive market so you can't let up because things can change very quickly," he said.
GM's operations in China include two foreign enterprises, 10 joint-venture partnerships and more than 50,000 employees in the world's second-largest economy.
GM said recent data shows the company and its joint-venture partners sold a record-breaking 3.1 million vehicles in China last year.
Barra said it is imperative for the company to be on the cutting edge of technological integration when it comes to their new models, so that GM can become the world's "most valued automotive company".
She also said some of the high-tech advances that GM plans to make - including the introduction of high-speed mobile broadband vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity in some models, and a highly automated, hands-free highway driving technology called Super Cruise - "unlock so many things that haven't been done in the past".
"Nobody goes anywhere without being connected, so GM talking about introducing more connectivity in their vehicles is where the car market is going and it's spot on," Dunne said.
