DaimlerChrysler AG on Sep 15 formally opened its first factory to make Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler sedans in China, joining a rush of foreign automakers scrambling for a share of the booming Chinese car market.
DaimlerChrysler said the factory in suburban Beijing is part of a 1.5 billion euro ($1.9 billion) investment in China.
The company plans to expand its financing business and is talking to potential Chinese partners about possibly producing a lower-cost model for the U.S. market, said chairman Dieter Zetsche.
"DaimlerChrysler is strongly committed to this market for the long-term future," Zetsche said at a news conference.
The German-U.S. automaker is a latecomer to manufacturing in China, the world's second-largest car market after the United States, with 7 million new vehicle sales a year.
However, before its 1998 merger with Daimler Benz AG, Chrysler Corp. became the first Western company to produce vehicles in China since the 1949 communist revolution when it opened a joint-venture Jeep factory in Beijing in 1983.
That factory has since closed, but the joint venture continues to produce Jeeps for sale in China at another plant in the suburbs of Beijing. It is DaimlerChrysler's only other car plant in China.
General Motors Corp., Volkswagen AG, Toyota Motor Corp. and other competitors already make cars in China.
Car sales in China are growing at double-digit rates, but DaimlerChrysler is opening its factory just as the government is rolling out new taxes meant to slow the growth of air pollution by reining in sales of bigger luxury cars.
A key challenge for foreign automakers in China is the government's insistence that at least 40 percent of their components come from Chinese suppliers, whose quality is still uneven. Zetsche said DaimlerChrysler intends to meet that target, though he acknowledged that it would not be able to do so immediately.
The DaimlerChrysler factory is to produce Mercedes E-Class and Chrysler 300C sedans, as well as Mitsubishi's Outlander sport utility vehicles. It has an annual capacity of 25,000 Mercedes and 80,000 Chrysler and Mitsubishi vehicles.
Zetsche said the company expected sales to meet those levels but would not say how long it would take. He said the factory is expected to be profitable when sales are well below its full capacity.
The factory, which employs 1,200 people, began test-production of vehicles last December and has made about 4,100 Mercedes sedans since then, said DaimlerChrysler spokesman Trevor Hale. He said Chrysler production was due to start in October.
"We've had a very slow ramp-up to make sure we get the quality right," Hale said. "As we identify more suppliers that meet our standards, we bring them into the supply chain."
In contrast to General Motors and other automakers that have produced specially designed models targeted at the Chinese market, the Mercedes and Chrysler models to be made in Beijing are identical to those sold abroad.
The company has not disclosed prices for the models made in Beijing.
Zetsche said DaimlerChrysler is talking with several possible partners about producing a lower-cost model to be sold in the United States under the Dodge brand.
"With one partner, we have very much progressed, but still haven't come to a final decision," he said.
The company's new Beijing factory is a joint venture with a Chinese partner, state-owned Beijing Automotive Industries Corp.
Beijing Automotive's chairman, An Qingheng, said the venture hopes eventually to produce 300,000 vehicles a year.
The joint venture's president, Guenter Butschek, said it plans to launch a new Chrysler advertising campaign in China shortly.
"This brand will for sure be far better known to the Chinese customer in a couple months," he said.
Source:佚名