SAIC Motor Corporation said on Monday it would spend another $US1.25bn to fuel its ambition of selling its own brand of cars globally, putting to use technology gleaned from its foreign partners and Britain’s collapsed MG Rover, Reuters reported.
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Having churned out Buicks and Santanas at ventures with General Motors and Volkswagen for years, SAIC set up a $460 million unit in February to make self-developed cars later this year based on MG Rover technology acquired from the failed car maker, Reuters noted, adding that SAIC joins fellow Chinese car makers Geely Automobile Holdings and Chery Automotive as they aim to follow other Asian car makers such as Toyota and Hyundai Motor onto the global scene.
With the new investment of RMB10bn, SAIC’s subsidiary would add five production lines to build 30 new models by 2010, more than doubling output capacity to 300,000 units, Wang Xiaoqiu, general manager of the unit, SAIC Motor Manufacturing, told the news agency.
“Our target is to sell over 200,000 own-brand cars by 2010, with 45,000 of that shipped to overseas markets, including Europe,” he reportedly said.
SAIC has targeted vehicle sales, including trucks and buses, of 2m units by 2010, of which 600,000 would be developed on its own.
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By GlobalDataReuters noted that SAIC last year lost out to Nanjing Automobile in the bidding process for MG Rover, but owns the intellectual property rights to build the Rover 25 small car and Rover 75 saloon under an earlier deal.
The company is currently in talks to buy the rights to use the two models’ names from German car maker BMW, the report added.
“There is certainly a chance for SAIC to succeed with its own brand, but it needs to get the price right,” Matthew Kong, an auto analyst with Fitch Ratings, told Reuters, adding: “They’ve got to give me a good reason to pick a new SAIC model rather than the more familiar Accord or Camry.”.
An SAIC executive told the news agency the car maker would offer a broad range of own-brand passenger cars priced from 65,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan ($8,115 to $37,460).
The first model due out soon would be a mid- to high-end sedan based on the Rover 75 platform, he reportedly said, declining to disclose the price.
Meanwhile, rival Nanjing Auto, which beat SAIC in the bid to take over MG Rover, plans to roll out its first locally made MG75 sedans in the first half of 2007 using acquired technology, Reuters said, citing state media reports last month.
