America's largest automaker General Motors (GM) is confident of a bounceback in the Chinese automobile market and has predicted substantial growth in the long term. China's fast-growing automobile sector has faltered in recent months as the world's second-largest economy struggles with slowing growth.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Detroit Auto Show, GM's co-CEO Mary Barra expressed her satisfaction with the company's growth story despite the world's largest auto market reeling under sluggish demand in the recent past.
"China is a very important market and I think it's going to be more volatile but we still believe over the long term the market has substantial growth," AFP quoted Mary Barra as saying.
The first female CEO, who was recently also annointed as the chairman of the major global automaker, has been part of GM for a long time. The company has witnessed record high growth in China in 2015 with 5% increase compared to 2014 and is now gearing up to start the export of Buick Envision -- a compact crossover vehicle from China. The compact crossover is the first made-in-China vehicle to be sold in the US.
In last year, GM sales were 3.1 in the US, up by 5% from previous year.
According to Mary Barra, the automaker believes that in China, they have a great partner. "We're going to continue to really focus on the Chinese customer to make sure we have the right vehicles across Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet and our other local brands," she stated adding that sales of Envision in China will go up in 2016.
The largest US automaker sold 147,000 Envision crossovers in China in 2015 and it will go on sale in the US in the second quarter of 2016.
