Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Trends
Geely makes history at Detroit Auto Show
The Geely press conference was swarming with media members, despite it not being in the cozy confines of Cobo Hall itself, but rather out in the lobby/concourse area. John Harmer, head of Geely USA, introduced Mr. Shufu Li, the entrepreneurial force behind the Geely Automobile Co., to the sea of cameras and microphones.
Geely must have learned a thing or two from its whack press conference in Frankfurt, as the one today was much more formal and informative. The company even did something very rare for an automaker at NAIAS – had a Q&A session with the press during the press conference.
Read on for all the details and pics of this rather historic press conference.
Head of Geely USA John Harmer and Shufu Li, CEO of Geely Automobile Company.
The press showed up in spades to cover the first Chinese automaker to be displayed at the NAIAS.
So here’s what we know:
- Biggest hurdle to entering U.S. is poor image of Chinese products here
- The fifth generation of the Geely 7151 CK (current third gen model pictured) will be the first model to enter the U.S. market
- The current C.K. doesn’t meet U.S. safety and emissions regulations, though the company will work to ensure it does during the next 18 mos.
- After U.S. regulations are met the company will focus on building a distribution network, mainly comprised of existing dealers. (Harmer said many dealers had already dropped off business cards at the show.)
- The CK (current or next gen wasn’t specified) will get 25mpg/city and 35mpg/hwy, as well as last for 10 years.
- Geely expects to sell 25,000 vehicles in its first year and 100,000 by the end of its fifth year in the U.S.
- The company will also enter the Canadian market after its cars are able to pass U.S. requirements
- Shufu Li is the son of Chinese peasant farmers (very “rags to riches”/American Dream story)
- No government entity owns any part of Geely
- “Geely” is derived from Chinese phrase that means “I am lucky”
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Mo 11:54AM (1/10/2006)
The model name, MR7151A doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. I can see them selling big in the WalMart lot next to the Garden Center for about 8K.
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zeroSignal 12:26PM (1/10/2006)
So.. it's got the front of the previous-generation S class, the rear of a european Toyota Corolla Sedan, the badge was nicked from BMW, and the rear badging is so crooked and messed up, it looks like it was put together by a 12 year old in 2nd grade art class.
Yeah, where do I sign?
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Ed 12:56PM (1/10/2006)
My first reaction is "No f'in way will anyone buy a Chinese car" but everyone said the same about Korean cars 10 years ago.
And in the 1950s and 1960s, Japanese manufacturing was considered to be good for producing nothing but junk and 5 cent wind-up toys.
So maybe China will make this fly. If not now then maybe in the future.
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Christian 1:08PM (1/10/2006)
Buh bye GM.
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Jeff Crew 1:31PM (1/10/2006)
This car looks pretty good. Very much like a Hyundai Elantra. It will be scary to watch them come into North America as the appearance shows they are not that far behind. Hyundai had a lot farther to go when they first arrived.
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kpogoda 1:33PM (1/10/2006)
I am impressed. Not a bad little entrant car. It reminds me of a Toyota Corolla. Let's see if the price is in the $5-8K range. Also, I wonder how it will compare to Kia.
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Nick 2:00PM (1/10/2006)
Spot on about the BMW badge, and miniature S Class front end. I think they'd be better off stealing from lower market brands. It might be easier to envision that thing as a Honda then an S-Class. Regardless, the quality looks about equivalent to an early 90's Hyundai, and they had better price it accordingly. I think I'll wait until the MR7151B. You know, once they got some bugs worked out.
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C. Karas 2:17PM (1/10/2006)
OK lets take a deep breath doomsayers for the domestic auto industry. This car is very, very dated looking and lackluster when compared to it's peers in it's market segment and it is going to be even more so in 18 months. Consumers don't always go to the lowest common denominator. And if given the choice why not buy a low mileage 2003 Civic instead? Geely will be nothing more than a sideshow for a couple of years until (or if) they get better models here. And if you watch the industry car companies are global with global reach and global production. If they want to become serious in this market, like Honda and Toyota did, ultimately they'll have to set up shop and build here.
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2Suave 2:23PM (1/10/2006)
If the car is cheap and reliable, it'll do just what Toyota did almost 40 years ago.
Don't underestimate the Chinese--there's plenty of brain power over there and lots of people to manufacture what the brains create, too.
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Finished.Law.School 2:32PM (1/10/2006)
I saw Bob Lutz take a dump in the driver seat of this car. Too bad no photogs were around to take a picture.
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Lithous 2:56PM (1/10/2006)
I have seen the future. GM will be #1 again (after Toyota takes the spot soon) in the world's largest market!!!
After people poor money into buying inferior products, just to be different (or hatred of your fellow American, you know, "GM autoworkers are lazy"), and China goes from making everything America buys except cars to: making everything America buys. Some people were in an uproar about military berets made in China, give me a break. That's nothing compared to this.
It isn't a Toyota which is raved as the best. You'll forgo getting what everyone brainwashes, I mean, tells you, is the best car to buy (Toyota and Honda) and you'll buy this Gili (the name is no accident) thing but you wouldn't buy a GM or Ford because it might break down (yet, with the Gili-mobile, for some reason, that fact that it hasn't been proven and WILL break down hasn't crossed your mind). I'm just trying to understand the logic. It will be cheaper at first but you'll be in the dealership more or on the side of the road more until the Chinese cars get better which will take at least 10 or more years (even with every car company in the world helping them).
China will produce 80% (probably more) of the world's goods like the U.S. did in the 1950's, China will be the largest auto market. Then it will be Buick, 75% of the world's market and then everything else.
It will only cost the million or more jobs in the U.S. that are either directly supported by GM and Ford and their suppliers and their dealerships. The U.S. will go bankrupt with defense trying to keep up with China's spending (though they won't have to spend as much, they'll get more bang for the buck since all manufacturing techniques will be available there) like the Soviet Union did with the U.S.
But the consulation is that you get to ride in this (not so) lovely car.
GM will suffer the fate of IBM's hardware division. Maybe Lenovo will own GM too, why not.
GM will be #1 again, in the world's largest market. China will be Center Universe again.
Ah, yes, how everything comes full circle.
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Marcello Mastroianni 2:58PM (1/10/2006)
"Biggest hurdle to entering U.S. is poor image of Chinese products here"
That drab monochromatic interior isn't going to help change that. Looks like it was designed by a Communist. Oops, did I say that?
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voiceofreason 3:51PM (1/10/2006)
#11, Lithous
Generally people think BEFORE they write, not the other way around. What the crap are you saying? Make sense, man/woman!
Yes, its styling is derivative; yes, its build quality looks pretty shabby; yes, Geely will need to develop its own dealer network; however, China have some definite advantages over the U.S.: cheaper manufacturing, favorable exchange rate, growing intellectual capital, and lots of international investors. Geely may flop, but Chinese cars will proliferate in America in 10 years, no problem.
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Rocket Punch 4:05PM (1/10/2006)
Funny how people who trash the chinese maker are usually the VIP at Walmart and I am sure the American auto manufacturer are doing very well in America.
They already know what they have to do to capture the american market and they know sometimes they will have to bend backwards to have that one foot in the door.
Knowing whats the problem is the first step and admitting it is the second. Unlike certain American manufacturer; cough *GM* cough.
Given time.....
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JSmith 5:04PM (1/10/2006)
I would NEVER, I repeat NEVER buy this car. Oh and by the way what kind of name is that MR7151A. ROFL
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jrhmobile 5:22PM (1/10/2006)
voiceofreason, Lithous' comments make more sense than you might think ... or any of us would like to see. The question is whether or not this happens with the tacit approval of GM itself.
1) GM is already #1 in China. Buick's the #1 brand bought there.
2) GM is putting big pressure on its suppliers to sell compnents at East Asia prices. Right now, the way to do that is to source those parts from East Asia.
3) GM is already selling vehicles in the US with East Asia-sourced powertrains.
4) GM is "suffering" under "legacy costs" associated with U.S. labor. Which is a much easier excuse to offer than managment owning up to heinous business decisions and piss-poor mainstream products.
With manufacturing capacity in China, increasing supplier support, established shipping logistics and mediocre mainstream products assembled by what management calls "expensive" U.S. labor, it's not hard to come up with Lithous' conclusion.
As for 1M-plus jobs lost and shuttered plants, that's just scorched earth in its wake. At the very least, moving production wholesale to China gives the General time to "reinvent" itself for times ahead. At worst, it buys time for management to finish looting the company.
The big question becomes: does GM keep its corporate presence in The Tubes, or does the RenCen become the regional sales office?
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Ed 5:26PM (1/10/2006)
I'll understand all the hysterics about what a piece of crap this vehicle is once someone explains the difference between it and GM econo cars. I mean, unless the chinese are making this car out of coat hangers it couldn't be any less reliable, less imaginative, or of poorer quality than a Pontiac Sunfire or something like that.
People condescend the quality of Asian manufacturing...as if American car companies have the high ground in that argument. Chevys have the worst resale value on the planet for a reason.
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jrhmobile 5:30PM (1/10/2006)
voiceofreason, Lithous' comments make more sense than you might think ... or any of us would like to see. The question is whether or not this happens with the tacit approval of GM itself.
1) GM is already #1 in China. Buick's the #1 brand bought there.
2) GM is putting big pressure on its suppliers to sell compnents at East Asia prices. Right now, the way to do that is to source those parts from East Asia.
3) GM is already selling vehicles in the US with East Asia-sourced powertrains.
4) GM is "suffering" under "legacy costs" associated with U.S. labor. Which is a much easier excuse to offer than managment owning up to heinous business decisions and piss-poor mainstream products.
With manufacturing capacity in China, increasing supplier support, established shipping logistics and mediocre mainstream products assembled by what management calls "expensive" U.S. labor, it's not hard to come up with Lithous' conclusion.
As for 1M-plus jobs lost and shuttered plants, that's just scorched earth in its wake. At the very least, moving production wholesale to China gives the General time to "reinvent" itself for times ahead. At worst, it buys time for management to finish looting the company.
The big question becomes: does GM keep its corporate presence in The Tubes, or does the RenCen become the regional sales office?
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bhtooefr 6:23PM (1/10/2006)
Hmm... my first impression was that it looked like an A4 Jetta knockoff with a knockoff of the BMW badge.
I do see the S-Class front clip, though...
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Keith 7:13PM (1/10/2006)
Geely needs a better name to sell cars in the west.
For example, Dae woo has changed their name to Chevrolet in the U.K. and China. GM is now the top seller in China overtaking VW.
Would Bridgestone be a successful tire company if they used a Japanese name. I doubt it.
Remember the AMC Gremlin. Who in their right mind would buy a car named Gremlin no matter how good it may have been, which it was'nt.
Regards, Keith
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