Made in Poland: Chevy or Chery

[Bravada]

This is a continuation of a story reported here:

GM DAT Chevrolets to be assembled in Poland

I can't find an English-language source running this story, so I have to refer you to the Polish "Rzeczpospolita" daily (the article will became unavailable o non-subscribers within a week): http://www.rzeczpospolita.pl/gazeta/...omia_a_11.html
http://www.rzeczpospolita.pl/gazeta/...nomia_a_1.html

Please not that this is not a translation but a write-up by myself based on those two articles and some other stuff.

For those of you unfamiliar with the issue I recommend reading a bit on the background of FSO: POLAND: GM considers stake in FSO

Chevy or Chery or Chevy AND Chery?



AvtoZAZ, the new owner of Polish car manufacturing plant FSO, previously owned by Daewoo Motor before the latter company went bankrupt, is vigorously seeking to extend FSO's model pallette beyond aged former Daewoo models.

General Motors, which was Daewoo's partner for decades before their international venture, and also took over the Korean company now known as GM DAT (yet without their overseas subsidiaries like FSO), seems a natural partner. It has cooperated with FSO before the Daewoo takeover (Opel Astras and Vectras were assembled in Warsaw), and it currently procures the assembly of Opels and GM DAT Chevrolets at AvtoZAZ in the Ukraine. Moreover, the former Daewoo model Lanos, which is manufactured at FSO, is now assembled in the Ukraine with some locally made components and sold in Russia (where Ukrainian-made cars attract no tariffs) as Chevrolet!

Manufacturing-wise, FSO would also be a good partner for GM, as the most likely cars to be assembled there are GM DAT designs, which are in many ways technologically similar to the cars produced in Warsaw for many years. GM currently has enough manufacturing capacity for Opel cars in Europe (including a new factory in Gliwice in southern Poland), but the GM DAT Chevrolets have to be imported from South Korea, which is both inconvenient and attracts 10% tariffs in the European Union. As Poland is the member of EU (Ukraine is not), producing Chevrolets in Poland would eliminate both weaknesses of GM's increasingly popular models.

FSO actually even started a weird cooperation involving GM DAT cars now, but their disassembly rather than assembly - read the story here: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...2/1003/JTEAHEN GM was also rumored to have been considering a capital involvement in the FSO: POLAND: GM considers stake in FSO

On Tuesday, however, the influential Polish daily, Rzeczpospolita, run a wide, first-page story on the possibility of AvtoZAZ cooperation with the Chinese automaker Chery. The Ukrainian delegation is in China now, and announced the official agreement might be signed within a month. The agreement would stipulate for Chery cars to be manufactured at FSO for both domestic and other EU markets, allowing Chery to bypass the customs duties. Chery cars would be very cheap by European standards, the daily speculates.

Chery already struck and agreement with the Avtotor assembly plant in Kaliningrad, Russia, to assemble cars for the Russian market. Avtotor specializes in middle-scale assembly of vehicles for the domestic market - despite the Kalinigrad enclave being surrounded by EU countries, the vehicles assembled there are still subject to normal 10% tariffs.

It is worth noting that it is no secret that Chery's QQ is a copy of the original Daewoo Matiz with some minor exterior tweaks (which was the cornerstone of a bitter litigation between Chery and GM in China). As FSO has been churning out Matizes for many years, setting up the production of Chery QQ would seem quite simple. On the other hand, Chery's model would still have to get all the necessary licenses and permissions to be sold in Europe - this can prove quite an obstacle. (Read more here: http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/s...d.php?t=30296). Fiat Auto Poland's president, Enrico Pavoni, said that Chinese cars won't come cheap unless the Chinese will wind a way to skimp on passing legal requirements.

The article also gives an update on some other issues - GM DAT granted FSO an extension of the rights to manufacture Lanoses (it was originally expected to expire this year), no word on Matiz. Lanos also reached 10% market share in the Ukraine and is the most popular car there now.

Rzeczpospolita also quoted the leaving Chevrolet Europe president, Herbert Spranger, on stating that to prevent cannibalization, GM will need to ensure Chevrolets are much cheaper than Opels, and they could easily achieve that by setting up production in EU (to avoid tariffs). AvtoZAZ declared that it already convinced GM to manufacture about 150 thousand cars a year at FSO. GM also intends on producing engines at Daewoo's former Romanian plant in Craiova (Romania will probably join the EU shortly), but the production of cars there was ruled out.

The weak conclusion of the article is that AvtoZAZ intends on cooperating with BOTH GM and Chery on manufacturing cars at FSO. My take is that while the deal with GM could easily start within months, the way Chery is constantly delaying their entry to EU or American markets might prove that this is more of a PR move on both sides, with the intention by AvtoZAZ to put pressure on GM, and Chery willing to gain credibility by gaining a possible foothold in the EU. I have not heard of any of the Chery cars clearing legal obstacles that prevent their sales in the EU.

[Butz]

So Chery and Chevrolet would be built in the same plant that is run by FSO?

It's all getting messed up, those ***** Chinese! Why do they have to copy and steal technologies and design!

[Ming]

I think the comparison of photos above would have more of an impact with the previous gen Spark:

[nadepalma]

Wow, that's a hell of a run down Bravada! Good stuff.

I think this is incredibly ironic, but I hope that GM moves fast to stave off any Chery incursion into the EU market.

[johnny smallblock]

I hope GM can establish a couple of good partnerships in China to brace itself for any impending "invasion."

[Hudson]

Originally Posted by johnny smallblock

I hope GM can establish a couple of good partnerships in China to brace itself for any impending "invasion."

You mean like their joint-venture with Shanghai Automotive which has become one of the top producers of light-vehicles in China?

[Bravada]

Originally Posted by Ming

I think the comparison of photos above would have more of an impact with the previous gen Spark:

I believe we all know where the QQ came from, I wanted to illustrate the articles with pics of cars that could actually be made there and found those two in almost identical colors

[gwwyjjliu]

Before everyone gets too excited about Chery's being made in Poland and sold in Europe, please read the attached. One of the things GM accused Chery of in its lawsuit (since settled) is that Chery actually took a Matiz car and hung Chery fascias on it in order to pass crash tests in China.

The crash test comparison between an actual QQ and Matiz were done by an independent lab in China. With any cheap knock-off, as you can see very dramatically, there IS a difference between the copy and the real thing.