{"id":97692,"date":"2015-08-18T11:21:02","date_gmt":"2015-08-18T15:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=97692"},"modified":"2015-08-18T11:21:02","modified_gmt":"2015-08-18T15:21:02","slug":"gm-plan-to-import-chinese-made-buick-envision-could-create-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2015\/08\/gm-plan-to-import-chinese-made-buick-envision-could-create-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"GM Plan to Import Chinese-Made Buick Envision Could Create Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Buick would like to fill a hole in its SUV line-up with the Chinese-made Envision.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The UAW wants to head off plans by General Motors to begin importing a new crossover-utility vehicle from China.<\/p>\n

While the Detroit automaker has not made a formal announcement, it is widely expected to begin importing a version of the Buick Envision it produces at a plant near Beijing. It could fill an open niche in the expanding Buick crossover line-up, a spokesman confirmed, though GM might alternatively move to produce the Envision at a U.S. plant.<\/p>\n

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Your Informed Source!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The possibility of importing its first Chinese-made product to the U.S. isn\u2019t sitting well with the United Auto Workers Union, which said such a move would be \u201ctone-deaf.\u201d The union is currently negotiating a new four-year contract with GM and is asking its workers to authorize a strike should talks fail to reach a settlement by the September 14th<\/sup> deadline.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the sacrifices made by U.S. taxpayers and the U.S. workforce to make General Motors the profitable quality company it is today, UAW members are disappointed with the tone-deaf speculation that the Envision would be imported from China,\u201d said Cindy Estrada, head of the union\u2019s GM Department, in a statement.<\/p>\n

(UAW asks workers to authorize strikes at GM, FCA if contract talks collapse. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

GM was one of the first foreign automakers to set up a manufacturing facility in China, just before the turn of the new millennium. Its various brands, including Buick, now lag only Volkswagen AG\u2019s marques in terms of overall Chinese sales. Until now, GM has said it wasn\u2019t planning to export products from China because it could barely keep up with local demand. But that could be changing as the Chinese car market slows for the first time in nearly two decades.<\/p>\n

The Envision went into production at a plant in the city of Yantail, southeast of Beijing, last year. Demand has been strong, with sales approaching 60,000 through the end of July.<\/p>\n

(GM suffers slide in China sales as car market suddenly slumps. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for the latest.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The model slots into a gap between the current Buick Encore and Enclave models, and would go up against the likes of the Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Jeep Cherokee and Toyota RAV4. That has become one of the hottest market segments in the U.S. and, indeed, the world.<\/p>\n

While Buick is one of the strongest brands in China it is still struggling to regain its footing in the U.S. after decades of decline. It has scored some modest successes, largely with the addition of new utility vehicles like Encore and Enclave, and would like to cover even more of the white space in the fast-growing ute market.<\/p>\n

GM, as a whole, is adding more of these vehicles. The Cadillac brand, in particular, expects to introduce as many as three new utility vehicles before the end of the decade, including one of similar dimensions to the Envision.<\/p>\n

There has been speculation that this new Caddy crossover would be built at the GM plant in the Detroit suburb of Orion Township. That facility is also set to start rolling out a new 200-mile battery-electric vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt. It already produces several small passenger cars, including the Chevy Sonic, which GM brought back from South Korea after union workers made extensive concessions to drive down labor costs at the plant.<\/p>\n

It may be possible, some sources suggest, to build the Buick Envision at the Orion plant, as well.<\/p>\n

And GM is now under intense pressure to do so rather than turn to China. The subject is all but certain to become a hot topic during the ongoing GM-UAW contract talks.<\/p>\n

But even if the maker does go with a domestic production plant, most analysts expect to see China begin to serve as a production source for the American market. Volvo has already announced plans to bring in a stretched version of its S60 sedan from a plant in China, and other manufacturers could follow in the next several years, according to industry analysts.<\/p>\n

(GOP frontrunner Donald Trump wants wage cuts at Ford to keep production out of Mexico. <\/em>Click Here<\/a> to find out more.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UAW wants to head off plans by General Motors to begin importing a new crossover-utility vehicle, the Buick Envision, from China. The union is calling the move “tone-deaf,” reports TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97692"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=97692"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=97692"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=97692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}