General Motors said on Monday that it plans to launch sales of its mini-car for China, the Chevrolet Spark – the first Chevy to be built in the mainland – on December 8 in 14 cities, Associated Press (AP) reported.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The Spark will be the first Chevrolet-branded passenger car to be made and sold in China and is the debut product of GM’s joint venture with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. and Wuling Automotive, a $US99.6 million project built in Liuzhou, a city in the southwestern region of Guangxi, AP noted.
The report said GM holds a 34% stake in the year-old venture which, apart from the Spark, also assembles Wuling mini-trucks and minivans and sold almost 143,000 vehicles in the first 10 months of this year.
The manual transmission Spark model will be priced at 61,800 yuan ($US7,445) and the automatic at 72,800 yuan ($8,770), GM said in a statement, cited by Associated Press.
The AP report said the Spark is based on the Matiz, produced by South Korean company unit GM Daewoo and its price in China has been a sensitive issue as a vehicle very similar to it, the QQ, went on sale in China months ago, produced by Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp. (SAIC) and Chery Automobile Co., for as little as 50,000 yuan ($6,024).
GM, which has a huge joint venture in Shanghai with SAIC that makes Buicks and other passenger cars, has said it is investigating, AP noted, while SAIC refuses comment on allegations that the QQ may involve violation of copyrights. The report added that SAIC’s current stake in the joint venture with Chery Automobile is unclear.
