General Motors has renewed its joint venture with SAIC Motor for another 20 years, locking in its presence in China after a painful restructuring and setting the operation up as an export hub for its Buick and Cadillac brands.
The extension of the 50-50 partnership, announced last week, will see more vehicle development work done in China to suit local tastes. GM says it will focus on Cadillac and Buick in the market and discontinue Chevrolet sales there.
The renewed terms allow GM to use China as an export base, shipping Buicks and Cadillacs to the Middle East, Africa, South America, Mexico and other parts of Asia. The joint venture has no plans to export to the United States, where tariffs and national security policies targeting China-developed technology have kept Chinese-built vehicles out.
SAIC-GM plans to launch at least 30 electric or hybrid vehicles by 2030. The joint venture’s China-developed Buick Electra series, launched last year with powertrain and intelligent features not found in GM’s US-designed vehicles, spearheads that push. The Electra E7 SUV logged more than 10,000 sales in its first month, and from October becomes the first premium model the joint venture sells overseas.
The renewal caps a turbulent period for GM in China. The company was among the first global carmakers into the market, winning its SAIC partnership in 1997 and growing into one of the country’s top sellers, but sales in 2025 fell to less than half their 2017 peak of more than four million vehicles.
GM began restructuring the business in 2024 amid steep market share losses, closing plants, cutting models and taking two non-cash charges totalling more than US$5 billion on the joint venture. Having once earned around US$2 billion a year in China before slipping into losses, GM has posted several consecutive profitable quarters since the restructuring, including US$83 million in the second quarter.
The renewal follows similar decisions by Honda and Volkswagen to extend their Chinese partnerships despite losing significant market share and profit in the country as domestic brands such as BYD have surged.
