Chevrolet is ending retail sales in China, production to continue

It’s not unknown that China is the largest automotive market in the entire world with sales accounting for more than a quarter of global automotive sales. It’s also a very competitive space with local brands having far more advanced technology along with faster advancements.

With that, most legacy automakers have had to catch up over the years. Get left behind and they’re good as dead. Some aren’t too lucky, such as Mitsubishi Motors which exited the market a little over a year ago. Now, Chevrolet is next.

General Motors (GM) has confirmed that the Chevrolet brand will be ending its retail sales in China, 21 years after it first established its presence there, and over 7.5-million vehicles sold in the Chinese market. 

It’s not the end of the world for the multi-brand American company though as this news also comes just a few weeks after it renewed its strategic partnership with SAIC Motor for an additional 20 years.

According to multiple sources, the American automaker’s sales in China have dropped by a whopping 99%. Annual sales reached its peak in 2014 with 767,000 units sold, dropping to less than 9,000 units last year.

With this development, Chevrolet will focus on exporting Chinese-made vehicles to markets outside the United States instead, while GM as a whole will be focusing primarily on the Buick and Cadillac brands. 

Here in the Philippines, Chevrolet currently offers a largely Chinese-sourced lineup with five out of seven models produced by SAIC Motor. These are the Chevrolet Groove, Captiva MPV, Spark EUV, Captiva EV, and Captiva PHEV. Previous models also sourced from China but have been discontinued are the Tracker, Trax, and Trailblazer.