Badging Daewoo as Chevrolet was one of the best strategic decisions GM has made, according to product development chief Bob Lutz.
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“No one has ever accused GM of not having enough brands and there isn’t enough money in the world to market Daewoo,” he said.
For the next generation of models, small Chevrolets will be built in Korea and large Chevrolets in the US. “GM has faced its challenges head-on both in revenue and cost saving but we have to turn [the company] round with great products.”
GM’s joint venture in Russia with AvtoVAZ which produces the Chevy Niva, is also back up and running after a break in production. GM Europe’s sales and marketing chief, Jonathan Browning, said that the Chevrolet brand had an important part to play in the market there.
He added: “The Russian JV is an important part of our portfolio and our brands are showing steady growth in the former Soviet union states.”
Lutz said: “Our global approach to product development is really beginning to work. We now have one global design and engineering budget that cuts across regional divides.
“Before that we were four regional car companies that had little to do with each other.”
This, admitted Lutz, had been a huge hindrance to GM. “We are now starting to get the economies of scale we should have as a global company. Swedish designers are working on Cadillacs, in the US they’re working on Saabs and in the UK on Chevrolet.
“GM is finally in line with the way a global company should be run,” said Lutz.
This will lead to a 50% reduction in platform architecture. There was, he said, the ridiculous situation when the Opel Signum was reinvented in the US as a Chevrolet Malibu.
“The Malibu was OK but no better than the Signum and we could have saved millions of dollars just by taking the Signum to the States.”
