The auto boom in China

By: Drivers.com staff
Date: 2005-08-17

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Explosive growth in China’s auto market (about 30% last year) ensured that last April’s International Auto Show in Shanghai would be big. In fact it was the biggest ever, with 1036 exhibitors from some 26 countries and a record seven-day attendance of 390,000.

The enormous potential of the Chinese market is focusing the attention of western automakers in a big way. China is now General Motor’s second largest global sales market and in 2004, GM and its joint ventures had a record year with sales of over 492,000 units (just under 10% of market share).

About a decade ago, GM had a single joint venture in China. Now it has seven. It also has two wholly owned companies with over 13,000 employees.

One of the concept cars displayed at the April auto show was the Action Life Activity Sedan (ALAS). The sedan was the first joint project to apply digital engineering to the full car development process. It’s a mini crossover-type vehicle designed for the "active city dweller."

While the technology emerged from the Pan Asia Technical Center (GM’s joint venture with China’s Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation), it drew its design inspiration from traditional Chinese culture, with a classic jade exterior color and a dash design inspired by the Ru-Yi, an ancient Chinese symbol of good fortune.

For wealthier Chinese auto buyers (with over US$300,000 to spend) DaimlerChrysler presented the Maybach 57S. This 612 hp highbrow muscle car will debut in fall 2005 in Asia and Europe and in early 2006 in north America.

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