At the Chengdu Auto Show last fall, Buick unveiled a small crossover called the Envision that is now manufactured and sold in China. The trade publication says industry analysts expect it to arrive in the U.S.in the latter half of 2016.
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Reports that General Motors may import a China-made vehicle to the U.S. has drawn rebuke from the UAW.
According to Automotive News, Buick sells four times as many vehicles in China as it does in the U.S., and the crossover crave seems insatiable there as well.
The Buick Envision may become one of the biggest headaches for General Motors, as contract negotiations continue for the automaker and United Auto Workers union. That is a hot segment. In the first seven months of this year, the company sold 57,413 of them.
The UAW is now in the midst of negotiating new labor pacts with GM, Ford and FCA, which owns the Chrysler (Xetra: 710000 – news) brands.
“The Envision should be made in the US by the workforce that saved GM in its darkest time, and UAW members intend to address this issue in contract talks”. Buick is on track to sell well over 100,000 units of the Envision in China this year, leaving little available export volume at the SUV’s Shandong province plant. Analysts and product planning specialists have speculated that most likely that vehicle will be a crossover to be sold as a Cadillac.
The Detroit automaker has not formally announced any plans on this front. (SAIC) and develop a new family of Chevrolet models for China, India, Brazil and Mexico.
China is the primary market for GM’s Buick brand.
Vehicles that were repaired under the first recall in November of 2014 will have to be repaired again because the replacement part can fail and cut off the headlights, spokesman Alan Adler said. Sales fell 7% in July, according to Citi analysts. The auto is built in Shanghai for the China market.
Many automakers are already exporting vehicles from other Asian markets to the U.S., such as the Buick Encore subcompact crossover made in South Korea. But more auto plants are being added in China every year by vehicle makers focused on the market and Chinese economic growth is slowing. “If there was any blowback, I would imagine it to be very short-lived”. “I don’t think this means U.S. consumers will be more inclined to accept a Chinese automaker”. Most people don’t even know where the cars come from.
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“It’s not necessarily going to be visible to consumers until they read the window sticker”, IHS’ Brinley said.
