Japan’s market is declining – again. Toyota is the dominant car company in Japan. But sales were off there for the third year in a row, with no improvement in sight. But that doesn’t have any impact on GM. They don’t sell cars in Japan.
But GM sure does sell cars in China.
And sales in China may go up as much as 30% next year. GM figures to have a solid piece of that action, which gives it a big lead on Toyota in what has become the second largest car market. Toyota hasn’t been all that successful in China, perhaps because historically, Japan and China have been enemies. Japan didn’t win any friends in China during World War Two.
Now the news gets worse. China’s the jumping off point for car companies that want to compete in India and the countries that the Indian manufacturers have targeted. GM, of course, is right there: GM’s Wulling joint-venture in China has been building cars for the Chinese market that it can easily develop into competitors for the new low-priced
Tata. (In fact, Bob Lutz recently said that’s what they were doing, echoing what the boss of GM China had told TopSpeed.com several weeks ago.)
So, don’t bet on Toyota winning the battle next year, either.
GM, however, is using Toyota’s desire to overtake it as an incentive to spur on its employees.
John Middlebrook, who is the GM executive in charge of global sales and marketing, told GM employees: “Let me say that I like to win. And I know you do too. We still have 2008 in front of us and we will fight hard for every sale.” In a clear reference to Toyota, Middlebrook also pointed out that GM “beat our largest competitor in nine of the ten largest markets in the world. The market where it didn’t win is, of course, Japan – where Toyota’s sales were down, but where General Motors does not compete.
Beat Toyota in nine of ten markets.
You get the sense that they kind of enjoyed it, don’t you?
Can Ford pull it off?
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