General Motors China today has launched a new brand for Chinese market. This new brand is called “Baojun”. It translates as “a Treasured Horse”. GM says this brand will be aimed especially at the lower income and first time car buyers. The brand “Baojun” is a product of a joint venture of GM and Chinese manufacturers SAIC and Wuling, the latter was formed to produce micro-vans.
Since decades, GM is known for its multi brand strategy in the US; although recently it has been seen axing brands which had become slow sellers in the US market namely Pontiac and Saturn. But the automotive giant is trying a similar approach at the Chinese market with the introduction of the Baojun brand. The new brand will compliment other GM brands sold in China like Buick and Chevrolet where Chevrolet is now GM’s fastest growing mainstream brand in China.
There is a wide range of small vehicles and cars lined up to be sold under the new brand in the near future. To start off, Baojun’s first offering will be a low-frill midsize sedan which will be loosely based on the Buick Excelle sedan in China which itself is based on the Chevrolet Cruze sedan sold in India. There are no official photos or any spy pictures available of this new sedan. The vehicle has been developed with help of GM and SAIC’s Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC) joint venture in Shanghai.
With GM being very bullish on India as well with Wuling, these low cost cars could be headed India’s way. This may give GM the arsenal it needs to go after the Indigo’s and Logan’s of the world and even at the Manza at a stretch. More updates to follow.