WCA July 2007

34 / 72

From the Americas
32 Wire & Cable ASIA – July/August 2007
Even as its US sales have suffered, GM showed strong
first-quarter growth in three of its regional business units:
Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East; Europe; and
Asia-Pacific.
According to Mr Bragman, GM’s best move is to stay
focussed on profitable sales and continue to make inroads
in countries such as China, India, and Brazil, where the
economies and auto markets are growing rapidly.
“Right now,” he said, “GM is the best-selling brand in
China. With a vast majority of [global] growth in developing
markets, GM is in an extremely good position to capitalise
on those emerging markets.”
A perceived risk for Toyota, according to an internal
document obtained by the Free Press earlier this year, is
that the Japanese company’s rapid rise in the US could
provoke political and consumer backlash.
Another element in the Toyota-GM rivalry for top spot in
the US auto market is the possibility that mighty Toyota
will overreach itself, to the detriment of its sterling name
for quality.
Last year Toyota opened a new truck plant in Texas, and,
this April, started production at a new facility in Indiana
and broke ground on another plant in Mississippi.
Erich Merkle, director of forecasting for IRN Inc
(Grand Rapids, Michigan) told the Detroit newspaper
that Toyota may have to slow its growth to maintain the
level of quality on which its reputation rests.
He cautioned: “Any time you stretch your resources like
that, quality is going to become more of an issue.”
Seeing brighter prospects in India,
General Motors will buy more parts
and build more cars there
Rick Wagoner, the chief executive of General Motors Corp,
said on 17th April that GM would significantly increase
its production and purchasing in India.
In an interview in New Delhi with the New York Times,
Mr Wagoner cited India’s growing car market and culture of
thrift and said GM planned to create a ‘local base’ there.
The Times’s Heather Timmons noted that the Detroit-
based giant and other big US auto makers, hoping to offset
slumping North American operations, are increasingly
looking to India. She wrote: “In the past, India has generally
taken a back seat to China, but a growing middle class
and new manufacturing prowess have made the country
popular” for joint ventures and investments. (‘GM Says
It Will Make More Vehicles and Buy More Parts in India,’
18th April).
GM expects India to be the second-fastest-growing car
market in the world, after China, over the next 10 years.
Car sales in India are growing about 15% a year, a rate
projected to continue for the next five years, with low-cost
cars making up the bulk of the sales.
Mr Wagoner, who had told government ministers and
auto industry executives at a conference on the Indian
auto industry that it was time for GM to ‘redouble its efforts’
❖
in India, is making good on his resolution. The Chevrolet
Spark – a compact hatchback priced at about $7,400 – has
been introduced into the Indian market.
Mr Wagoner also said GM planned to take advantage of the
high-quality, low-cost Indian supply base ‘to source more
parts out of India.’
In a statement issued after his presentation to the
conference, he said the sourcing increase could be ‘as
much as five-fold over the next two years.’
According to analysts, that means GM would be buying up
to $1 billion worth of car parts in India annually. That would
top the outlay in India of every other foreign auto maker.
A recent convert to ‘green’ diesel
technology, Nissan chief Ghosn
addresses US fuel-efficiency needs
Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of both Nissan of Japan
and Renault of France, announced on 18th April that within
a few years Nissan Motor will introduce its first diesel-
powered vehicle in North America. Mr Ghosn gave details
about Nissan’s diesel strategy in a speech to the Council on
Foreign Relations in Washington, DC.
The venue was an unusually prestigious one. The Council on
Foreign Relations, founded in 1921, publishes the respected
bi-monthly journal Foreign Affairs . Distinguished fellows of
its David Rockefeller Studies Program research and write on
the most important challenges facing the US and the world
at large.
In a preliminary meeting with editors and reporters at
the Washington Post, Mr Ghosn acknowledged that the
problems of the global auto industry stand high among
those challenges. He also gave it as his view that – in its
resistance to fuel-economy regulations – the industry has
brought some of these problems on itself.
“[It has] put itself in a situation where everybody is focussing
on the car industry,” Mr Ghosn said. “The carbon dioxide
emitted by a car looks more damaging than the carbon
dioxide emitted by everybody else.”
Modern diesel technology, already widespread in Europe,
is gradually gaining acceptance in the United States. But
Nissan has been slower in its development than other
Japanese auto makers.
While Toyota and Honda have sold gasoline-electric hybrid
models to Americans for years, Nissan did not offer them
such a car until January of this year.
Now, however, Mr Ghosn has pledged his company to begin
selling its flagship Maxima sedan with a cleaner-burning
diesel engine, in the US, by 2010.
Carlos Ghosn made his name by rescuing Nissan from
near-bankruptcy in 1999. He performed this prodigy largely
by catering to the American demand for speed and power
during the 1990’s heyday of trucks and sport-utility vehicles.
Now, the Post’s Sholnn Freeman writes: “Americans are
demanding smaller vehicles with less powerful engines
in the face of rising gas prices, global warming fears, and