GM’s Biggest Growth Market Is Now China
Since the days when Henry Ford set up his first factory, the United States of America has been the single largest market for automobiles in the world. With America facing a deep recession, US auto sales have fallen by as much as 37% this past month compared to year ago numbers resulting in the US, for the first time, losing its position as the world’s number one car market. For the month of January, more cars were sold in China than in the United States. Japan’s auto market ranks third in size behind the US and China.
In part that’s due to the Chinese government cutting the tax rate on new car purchases, previously at 10%, in half. Although still lower than China’s January 2008 sales totals, January 2009 saw relatively strong auto sales performance once the tax cut was announced. The Associated Press reports that General Motors (GM) expects Chinese auto sales for all of 2009 to eclipse US sales by more than a million vehicles. If those numbers prove accurate, it is not likely that the US will ever regain the lead since the market penetration of automobiles in China is still very small.
China, of course, has a total population that is more than four times greater than the population of the US and has been executing a long term economic policy encouraging domestic consumption. China would like to rely less on its foreign exports for its continued economic growth and more on its own domestic markets. Yet its auto industry is still largely reliant on technology borrowed from western companies. General Motors has invested heavily in China and sold over a million vehicles in that country in 2008. The Chinese government is, however, intent upon developing its own auto technology infrastructure and is committing billions of Yuan toward technology modernization efforts in the industry this year.
China has also made huge investments in roads and highways in its major industrial areas in the last decade and modern highways, even by US standards, now lay waiting for increased traffic. A visit to the industrial areas in the countries south, however, finds a mish mash of old and new, with overloaded bicycles and scooters weaving in and out between compact cars, large trucks, and stripped down tractors as the agrarian economy gives way to industry.