GM introduces two new models for Chinese market

General Motors Corp, whose first- quarter sales growth in China lagged behind rivals, has introduced two new models to drive its expansion in the world’s second-largest auto market.

GM sell a revamped Excelle car and an imported Buick Enclave sport-utility vehicle in China. Sales of Buick-brand vehicles may reach 400,000 units this year, Ding Lei (丁磊), president of GM’s passenger car venture in Shanghai, said at the launch of the new models on Saturday night.

“We’ll use more integrated global resources to develop more cars for China in the next decade,” Ding said. “The brand has got its root in China.”

The US carmaker, relying on overseas customers to counter falling demand at home, is seeking to attract Chinese buyers who have preferred Volkswagen AG’s Skoda Octavia and Ford Motor Co’s Focus over the Buick Excelle. A slowdown in China sales may hurt GM’s chance of extending its 76-year reign as the world’s largest automaker.

China the US to become the largest market for Buick cars in 2005. Buick sales in China reached 350,000 units last year, Ding said.

The largest overseas automaker in China boosted sales 7.4 percent to 311,512 cars and light trucks in the first three months, lagging Volkswagen’s 33 percent and Ford’s 47 percent growth.

GM at least six models in China in the first three months, while Volkswagen introduced 13.

China’s vehicle sales totaled 2.58 million, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said. Passenger-car sales have grown by more than half in the last three years, in line with the country’s surging economy.

GM, battling Toyota Motor Corp to extend its reign as the world’s largest carmaker, expects to sell 75 percent of its vehicles outside the US within a decade. The Detroit-based automaker’s sales in China grew 19 percent last year, the slowest expansion in five years.