SAIC-GM-Wuling Opens $700 Million Facility in China
General Motors’ joint venture with SAIC in China, SAIC-GM-Wuling, just opened its first manufacturing site outside of the People’s Republic, choosing Indonesia as the location for its new plant.
The $700 million manufacturing site takes up 60,000 square meters of Cikarang, Indonesia, and has the annual capacity of 120,000 vehicles. The facility started operation yesterday, on July 11, 2017.
The plant’s first product will be the Wuling Confero S MPV, which is set to be sold at Wuling dealerships across Indonesia in the third quarter of 2017. The Confero, which is Latin for “bring together,” is available as either a seven- or eight-seater.
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Designed to meet the lifestyle needs of contemporary Indonesian families, the Confero features enhanced safety through the adoption of anti-lock brakes with electronic brakeforce distribution and ISOFIX locks for child safety seats.
Established in 2002, SAIC-GM-Wuling is based in Liuzhou, Guangxi. GM China has a 44% stake in the joint venture, while SAIC has a 50.1% stake and Guangxi Automobile Group holds the remaining 5.9% of shares. SAIC-GM-Wuling manufactures a wide range of Wuling brand mini-trucks and minivans, as well as Baojun brand passenger vehicles. In 2016, SAIC-GM-Wuling had record deliveries of 2,048,028 vehicles in China.
The new $700 million facility in China furthers General Motors’ already strong footing in the Asian market. The American automaker has ten joint ventures, two wholly owned foreign enterprises, and over 58,000 employees in China. In 2016, GM delivered over 3.8 million passenger cars and commercial vehicles in China, under the Baojun, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Jiefang, and Wuling brands.
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