Nick Reilly, President of GM Asia-Pacific: "Thailand's growth will be significant,"

[Ming]

GM ASIA-PACIFIC OPERATIONS: Outlook nice for Thailand

www.bangkokpost.com
Friday May 18, 2007

President of GM Asia-Pacific, Nick Reilly, effected a monumental turnaround in the South Korean car market, and you can expect his Midas touch to extend to the Chevrolet brand in Thailand

Thailand was touted as an ideal candidate in the "emerging market" category by General Motors, after the world's second largest automaker envisaged venturing into making small cars as part of a strategic shift in its global outlook.

Of equal importance was GM's vision of Asia as a potential leader in "green" technology, something that's gained momentum lately as both society and the auto industry have come to accept that our environmental concerns are for real and can't be overlooked any longer.

Nick Reilly, GM's president for Asia-Pacific, was in town recently to talk about its spectacular financial turnaround of the past year, its report card for the region and explain why Toyota usurped it as the world's largest automaker.

Reilly is a former president of GM Daewoo Auto Technology (GMDAT). During his tenure business in South Korea grew from 220,000 vehicles in 2002 to more than 1 million in 2005.

Thailand on the map

After a thinly-veiled remark at Toyota in which he said the Japanese maker was only able to steal a lead over GM in the first quarter this year because GM had scaled down vehicle sales to rental firms, Reilly proceeded to reassure that GM's expansion in China and Vietnam will not affect its investment in Thailand.

"Thailand's growth will be significant compared to other countries in the region. We are using it as a production base. We aren't big in Malaysia," he said, adding: "The Thai market will pick up again. It could be worth 800,000 to 900,000 units by 2010. Thailand is significant. As for us, we have increased our market from 2% (5-6 years ago) to 7% in the Asia-Pacific region and we expect the figure to grow.

"To achieve that, we have to do it outside Japan. China is competitive. And so that growth will come from India and Asean countries. Between now and 2010, Asean and Thailand will grow. The one-ton pick-up is a key product."

The Chinese market, now worth 8 million vehicles, is expected to grow to 10-11 million by 2010. India now sells two million and is expected to grow by 10-15% in three years, compared to one million units analysts have forecast for Thailand.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/Motoring/...07_motor05.php

[nadepalma]

I really like Nick Reilly -- he's done very well and I'm looking forward to what he has up his sleeve.

I wonder how much longer before his success becomes so big that he's called to North America?

[tgagneguam]

Thailand was touted as an ideal candidate in the "emerging market" category by General Motors, after the world's second largest automaker envisaged venturing into making small cars as part of a strategic shift in its global outlook.

Hmmm, was a little shocked by the descriptor for GM there.

After a thinly-veiled remark at Toyota in which he said the Japanese maker was only able to steal a lead over GM in the first quarter this year because GM had scaled down vehicle sales to rental firms...

Generally, I think Nick seems like a smart fellow, and he certainly has demonstrated his talents with the recent exceptional performance of GMA-P, but I don't at all agree with this statement. To suggest that Toyota achieved its first-quarter unit sales victory over GM simply due to GM's cutting back on rental sales-especially since Toyota still sells far fewer vehicles to fleet-seems troubling. It sort of suggests he doesn't understand why Toyota is doing so well, of course, beyond currency manipulation, far less legacy costs, and the myriad other external factors used to explain Toyota's success (ahem). I hope Nick was just taking a cheap shot at Toyota and sees the situation much more clearly than that. Otherwise, my vision for a stronger GM just grew even cloudier.

[asim]

Originally Posted by Ming

Thailand was touted as an ideal candidate in the "emerging market" category by General Motors, after the world's second largest automaker envisaged venturing into making small cars as part of a strategic shift in its global outlook.

Second largest automaker? I think not. GM is still first in my book. The war isn't over until the end of the year, not just one quarter.

I think a LOT of the Asian countries (including the Middle East) can be won over by GM. I really hope GM pours lots of resources into these emerging markets, because this is where the war is going to be fought. GM just needs to make the right moves to woo the customers over there.