In a bid to enhance its presence in fast-growing emerging economies, US auto maker General Motors has unveiled plans to invest billions of dollars in the development of a new family of cars under the Chevrolet line.
The Detroit-based carmaker announced Tuesday that it would invest about $5 billion (4.5 billion euros) to introduce a new family of cars under the Chevrolet line targeting emerging markets, co-developed by Chinese partner SAIC Motor.
The company aims to manufacture and sell the vehicles in China, Brazil, India and Mexico, and export the cars to other emerging countries.
GM hopes to launch the new model in 2019, and expects the annual production to rise to over 2 million vehicles.
The core architecture and engine of the new vehicles are being jointly developed with state-owned SAIC, a leading Chinese automaker and a partner of GM on major joint ventures in the world’s second-largest economy.
GM expects the new Chevrolet line to replace several existing offerings and that the program will benefit from global economies of scale, as well as the purchase of auto parts on a local level.
“With a significant majority of anticipated automotive industry growth in 2015 to 2030 outside of mature markets, Chevrolet is taking steps to capitalize on that growth,” said GM President Dan Ammann in a statement.
The plan, however, does not foresee GM exporting the new models to mature car markets such as the United States.
sri/hg (AFP, Reuters)
