According to Bloomberg, GAC Group plans to establish automobile assembly factories in Europe and South America by 2026. Currently, Chinese car manufacturers are seeking to achieve localized production overseas in order to avoid tariffs imposed on Chinese made electric vehicles.
During the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Laos, Wang Shunsheng, Senior Vice President of International Business of GAC Group, said, "We are in talks with potential partners and plan to build factories in Europe and South America next year or the year after. Although the tariffs imposed by Europe and America on Chinese made electric vehicles have had a significant impact on the automotive industry, GAC Group is still actively promoting its global expansion strategy
Wang Shunsheng stated that GAC Group is considering Brazil as its first choice for its South American factory, but did not provide detailed information on which European countries GAC Group is considering.
As of now, GAC Group has entered 9 ASEAN countries and opened about 54 sales and service outlets. Guangzhou Automobile Group expects to have approximately 230 sales and service centers in the ASEAN region by 2027, and will sell around 100000 vehicles.
In September of this year, Guangzhou Automobile Group's car sales were 182626 units, far lower than the 243599 units sold in the same period last year. Affected by weak consumer demand, GAC Group's sales of new energy vehicles decreased by 19% year-on-year.
In the fierce competition with BYD and Tesla, more and more Chinese car manufacturers are seeking new growth points overseas. However, they are facing high tariffs from European and American countries, which are concerned that the influx of low-priced Chinese cars could harm their domestic automotive industry. Last week, the European Union voted to impose import tariffs of up to 45% on Chinese made electric vehicles for a period of five years. Therefore, many Chinese car manufacturers choose to invest in building factories abroad.