Automotive News China
Shanghai General Motors’ President, Wang Xiaoqiu (pictured left) will soon leave the company to lead the passenger vehicle unit of SAIC Motor Corp., according to the Economic Observer, a Beijing newspaper.
Wang’s appointment as President of SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle Company Limited (SMPV) was announced at SAIC Motor’s internal meeting last week, the newspaper reported – he will take over the post from Chen Zhixing, who was promoted to SAIC Motor President last month.
Wang, 50, a long-time SAIC Motor executive, was named Shanghai GM President in August 2013. Shanghai GM is a 50-50 passenger vehicle joint venture between General Motors and SAIC Motor.
SAIC Motor is eager to find an experienced executive to strengthen its lacklustre passenger vehicle unit, the newspaper reported, citing an unnamed manager.
SAIC Motor, like other domestic Chinese automakers, has been losing market share. In the first five months of 2014, the company’s passenger vehicle unit sold 85,155 Roewe and MG cars, virtually unchanged from a year earlier.
During that same period, overall passenger vehicle sales in China rose 11 percent.
Wang joined SAIC Motor in 1989. Before becoming Shanghai GM’s President, he was President of Shanghai Diesel Engine Company Limited, a SAIC Motor subsidiary.
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Are these global sales figures – if so they are less than what MGR were doing (in terms of annual production) before they went bust. SAIC are using Western technology to produce above average vehicles (compared to indigenous Chinese car manufacturers with no international JV’s) but maybe they need to headhunt Western automotive management and organisational structures to ensure the product is right for their markets.
And perhaps employ more western orientated designers rather than home grown ones. Honestly, this has become a major debacle for them. In my view, engineering and manufacture should have stayed in the UK, in the same way it had done with JLR. Believe me, it seems TATA got his analysis right – I even think that his analysis of electric vehicles was correct too.
Oh, and GM will always find a way to mess it up. You can’t trust them on many things (well, nearly everything) but you can trust them to mess up another business..
“its lacklustre passenger vehicle unit” I think this sums up many peoples feelings, especially in the UK. Just imagine a world where TATA had taken MGRover in the JLR direction?
Chris C,
Well, given your above comment, you might just find this article of interest:
Blog: An American ally for Guy in Shanghai?