GM’s Durant Guild is a Direct Sales Platform that May Offer Cadillacs and Corvettes in China

By
Mitch Talley
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6
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GM's Durant Guild is a Direct Sales Platform that May Offer Cadillacs and Corvettes in China

Photo Credit: General Motors


A new strategy by General Motors to attract more customers in China gets underway today, according to a report by Automotive News Europe.

To be known as Durant Guild, in honor of the company’s founder William Durant, the new direct sales platform will focus on creating buzz around some of GM’s halo products.

“Durant Guild is not a volume play, but if we do a good job and the products sell well, it will create a lot of buzz around Cadillac and Chevy and will help how people perceive our products and technology,” the head of GM in China, Julian Blissett, told Reuters.

While Blissett would not name specific models being targeted by the new strategy, he did say to think of vehicles like the mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette, the all-electric GMC Hummer and Cadillac Lyriq, and the internal-combustion Chevrolet Tahoe SUV.

Through Durant Guild, GM plans to host invitation-only events to showcase possible products, open “experience centers” in urban hubs, and potentially stage pop-ups at selected sites, company officials told Reuters.

The first such event is slated in Shanghai today, helping GM kick off its new strategy to try to overcome slumping sales in China. Foreign automakers like Buick and Chevrolet are used to owning 60 to 70 percent of the passenger-car market there since the 1990s, but so far this year, their market share has dipped to 52.4 percent as Chinese companies like Xpeng, Nio, and BYD have begun dominating the expanding smart EV market.

GM is hoping to reverse that sales slump by creating buzz about some of its more exhilarating products, hoping the excitement will lead to more sales for existing models already in China.

“That will be a positive impact on our business and will support our growth plans in China,” Blissett said.

Durant Guild leader Felix Weller says GM is targeting three new types of consumers with the new strategy: nature lovers interested in outdoor activities, executive VIPs, and young performance-oriented drivers.

Chee-Kiang Lim, managing director for China at Detroit-based automotive consultancy Urban Science, says GM should focus on making “smarter” vehicles.

“What Chinese consumers want is to extend their digital lifestyles to their cars. Cars from foreign brands designed and engineered overseas are increasingly not meeting these needs,” he said.

“If Durant can overcome this bias and provide high-tech, personalized features and seamless connectivity to China’s digital ecosystems, its odds of success in the China marketplace will be higher.”


Source:
europe.autonews.com

Related:
GM Presents the C8 Corvette Convertible and New SUVs at the 2020 China International Import Expo
Chinese Automaker SS Dolphin Offering a Four-Door Version of their ‘Knock-Off’ C1 Corvette EV
GM Appears to be Courting the Chinese Market with the 2020 Corvette Stingray

 



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6 COMMENTS

  1. S0 GM thinks they are so smart that the Chineese will not duplicate these cars right down to the last transister and then rip off the pattens. Time to wake up America
    Are you so desprate to make a profit that you do not see the writing on the wall.

  2. OMG! Sell Corvettes in China when there are folks here in the USA waiting 1.2-1.5 years (me included) to get a Corvette! Really? Why not clear up the backlog here first then market in new areas overseas. And while you are at it GM, lets do something about the asinine dealer markups around. $25-35-45K markups. And that one dealer recently in news asking $90K markup on Z06s. This is really alienating your base of customers in the USA.

  3. I’ll bet this news will make all the US customers that have been waiting for months on end to get their Vette order filled to find out that they want to make the Vette available to the Commies.

  4. WHY,WHY,WHY,WHY!!!!?????? What a waste of time and effort, GM can’t even build enough for us so they want to supply these yahoos and commies?? WTF! Come on GM!! Get your SHIT together for christ sake!!

  6. CORVETTE FRIENDS – SELLING CORVETTES IN CHINA!
    ONE MORE REASON WHY THE GENERAL MOTORS SHIP IS SLOWING SINKING TO THE BOTTOM OF THE DEEP BLUE PACIFIC OCEAN – IF MS. BARRA THINKS THE SUPPLY OF NEW CORVETTE STINGRAYS AND THE UN-OBTAINABLE Z06 CAN NOW OFFER THE UBER RICH OF CHINA THEIR FAIR SHARE OF CADILLAC MODELS AND NEW CORVETTES, THEN MS. BARRA NEEDS SOME VERY FAST THERAPY TO GET HER OUT OF THIS FANTASY OF RUNNING GM.

    THERE IS A LONG LIST OF AMERICAN AND CANADIAN CORVETTE BUYERS THAT DESERVE TO OWN THEIR PERSONAL BEST AMERICAN VEHICLE EVER, SO WHY DOES ANYBODY IN CHINA DESERVE A NEW CORVETTE??

    THIS WEEKLY ANNOUNCEMENT FROM GENERAL MOTORS THAT IS CONCERNING THE CORVETTES ASSEMBLY OR PURCHASE STATUS HAS GOT TO STOP – IT’S CREATING ALL OF THE EXTREME DOUBT IN THE COMPETENCE OF CHEVROLET AND GM’S MANAGEMENT TO DO THE BEST JOB FOR ALL VEHICLES BEING SOLD NOW, NOT IN THE FUTURE IN CHINA.

    WHAT IS NEXT FROM MS. BARRA – MAYBE HER RESIGNATION!!
    THANKS FOR LISTENING.

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